jn^v,       ''  A  v*  *i>  V  ^»*r  ' 


BV  660  .W3 

Webb,  Robert  Lee. 

The  ministry  as  a  life  work 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

NKW  YORK    •    BOSTON  •   CHICAGO   ■   OAIX&S 
AIXANTA    •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO..  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY   •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOUKNB 

IHE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OP  CANADA.  Lid. 

1X)KONTO 


THE  MINISTRY  AS 
A  LIFE  WORK 


\ 
\ 

BY 

Rev.  ROBERT  LEE  WEBB,  S.  T.  M. 

CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY, 
THE  NORTHERN  BAPTIST  EDUCATION  SOCIETY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1922 

All  rights  reserved 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 


Copyright,  1922, 
By  THi:  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  elect  retyped.     Published  September,  19?2. 


BROWN   brotherj:,  linotypers 

NEW  YORK 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  Problem  of  the  Ministry  ...  1 

II.  The  Discouragements  to  the  Ministry  9 

III.  The  Call  to  the  Ministry       ...  29 

IV.  The  Candidate  for  the  Ministry       .  35 
V.  The  Training  for  the  Ministry    .     .  48 

VI.  The  Opportunity  for  the  Ministry    .  61 

VII.  The  Attractions  of  the  Ministry     .  73 

VIII,  The  Rewards  of  the  Ministry       .     .  82 

IX.  The  Permanency  of  the  Ministry     .  90 


The  Ministry  As  a  Life  Work 


The  harvest  indeed  is  plenteous,  but  the  laborers 
are  few. — Matt.  9:37. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    MINISTRY 

In  the  progress  of  the  years  the  Church  of 
Christ  has  faced  many  serious  problems, — prob- 
lems that,  if  they  had  not  been  settled  rightly, 
would  have  subverted  the  life  of  the  church  and 
prevented  it  from  accomplishing  the  work  for 
which  it  was  established. 

No  problem,  however,  is  more  potent  with 
possibilities  of  good  or  ill  to  both  the  church  and 
the  world  than  the  question  now  confronting  it — 
the  adequate  supply  of  well-trained  ministerial 
leaders  for  the  pastorate  and  other  forms  of  rec- 
ognized activities  in  the  Christian  ministry. 

This  is  not  an  altogether  new  problem  in  the 
history  of  American  life.     It  was  prominent  in 

1 


2         THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

the  early  part  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  as  the 
tide  of  population  swept  over  the  Alleghanies  and 
flowed  down  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and 
its  tributaries. 

New  settlements  sprang  up  as  by  magic,  and 
churches  were  established  everywhere,  but  there 
were  no  men  to  fill  their  pulpits.  The  situation 
at  that  time  was  serious,  but  it  was  not  so  acute 
as  the  condition  that  faces  the  church  at  the  pres- 
ent hour. 

We  may  emphasize  the  worth  of  lay  leader- 
ship In  the  church,  and  recognize  the  splendid 
values  of  the  printed  page  in  giving  the  message 
of  the  gospel,  and  yet  we  cannot  escape  the 
conviction  that  the  success  of  the  church  in  the 
present,  and  its  welfare  In  the  future,  depends 
upon  the  numbers  and  quality  of  its  ministers. 
The  church,  humanly  speaking,  stands  or  falls 
upon  Its  ability  to  summon  strong  young  men 
to  its  special  service  in  sufficient  numbers  to  meet 
its  needs. 

The  comparative  failure  of  the  church  to 
thus  command  its  youth  at  the  present  time 
is    apparent    to    everybody,    and    Is    receiving 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK         5 

emphasis  through  current  discussions  in  the  public 
press. 

The  chaos  and  restlessness,  so  marked  in 
other  spheres  of  human  society,  are  reflected  in 
the  religious  life  of  our  times.  The  clanging 
noises  of  the  world  are  drowning  the  still  small 
voice  that  speaks  within  the  soul  summoning  it 
to  the  divine  service  of  the  ministry.  The  appeal 
of  physical  sense  threatens  to  submerge  the 
conscience  of  the  nation.  The  seriousness  of  the 
situation  was  not  appreciated  for  some  time,  but 
church  leaders  are  now  awakening  to  conditions 
and  their  possible  dangers. 

Great  city  churches,  equally  with  small  country 
parishes,  are  having  difficulty  in  securing  min- 
isters, and  some  of  them  remain  pastorless  for 
long  periods  of  time. 

The  Interchurch  Survey,  made  in  1920,  tells 
us  that  in  "One  denomination  3,388  congrega- 
tions did  not  have  regular  pastoral  care.  In 
another  there  were  994  fewer  ministers  than  in 
19 14.  In  the  New  England  section  of  one 
denomination  35  per  cent,  of  the  congregations 
were  without  regular  ministers  in   1 915.     In  a 


4        THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

denomination  having  963  congregations,  only 
627  had  settled  pastors." 

The  Year  Book  for  1920  of  one  of  the  largest 
denominations  reported  456  men  ordained  and 
450  men  deceased.  But  this  apparent  gain  of 
six  was  changed  to  a  large  loss  by  the  retire- 
ments from  active  service  ensuing  from  age  and 
physical  disability,  and  above  all,  from  the  drift 
of  ministers  into  other  occupations. 

This  drift,  according  to  competent  observers, 
amounted  in  the  church  as  a  whole  to  twenty-five 
per  cent,  of  those  ordained. 

This  dearth  of  ministers  is  the  result  of  a 
very  serious  shortage  in  the  number  of  men  who 
are  preparing  themselves  for  such  work. 

At  a  conference  of  theological  schools  held  in 
Cambridge  in  19 18,  It  was  asserted  that  In  19 15 
there  were  1,000  men  less  preparing  for  the 
ministry  than  in  1895.  Fourteen  Presbyterian 
Seminaries  reported  in  1896,  960  students;  In 
19 1 6,  840  students;  and  in  192 1  only  639  stu- 
dents. In  191 1  the  Congregational  Seminaries 
reported  434  students  and  in  192 1,  483  students, 
an  apparent  gain  of  49.    But  this  gain  was  largely 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK        5 

in  two  schools  that  had  organized  strong  depart- 
ments where  large  numbers  of  the  students  were 
not  preparing  for  the  ordained  ministry.  The 
other  seminaries,  six  in  number,  showed  a  loss  of 
about  37  per  cent.  In  1910  nine  Baptist 
theological  schools  reported  1,258  students, 
while  in  1921  eleven  institutions  reported  only 
838  students.  In  1920  twelve  colleges,  that 
usually  send  large  numbers  of  students  into  the 
ministry,  had  only  27  such  graduates. 

Even  in  the  pre-college  age  the  same  serious 
lack  of  interest  in  the  ministry  as  a  life  work 
seems  to  exist.  One  secretary  reports  that  in 
a  week's  campaigning,  during  which  he  held 
some  ninety  personal  interviews  with  boys  of 
High  School  and  Academy  age,  he  found  only 
two  boys  who  had  definitely  set  their  minds  on 
becoming  ministers.  Engineering  in  its  various 
forms,  banking,  farming,  and  mercantile  pursuits 
were  largely  in  the  ascendency  In  their  appeal  to 
the  boys  as  worthwhile  occupations. 

Such  facts  as  these  are  simply  Indicative  of 
general  conditions.  They  suggest  the  seriousness 
of  the  situation  that  confronts  the  church,  and 


6        THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

call  for  wise  action  upon  the  part  of  religious 
leaders. 

It  is  not  simply  a  question  of  supplying  men 
for  the  forward  work  of  the  church;  it  is  also  a 
question  of  maintaining  the  working  force  at  Its 
present  strength  and  efficiency. 

Sporadic  efforts  are  being  put  forth  to  meet 
the  situation,  by  awakening  the  churches  to  the 
consideration  of  conditions  and  by  enlisting  the 
young  men  and  women  In  college  and  academy 
for  some  form  of  special  service. 

In  the  Southland  the  attempts  to  meet  the  sit- 
uation have  been  comparatively  successful  and 
promising  reports  are  heard  from  other  sections. 
It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  these  gains  are 
more  apparent  than  real,  for  large  numbers  of 
the  new  ministerial  students  in  the  colleges  and 
theological  schools  are  ordained  men,  already 
listed  in  denominational  Year  Books  as  ministers 
and  pastors.  They  do  not  represent  new  acces- 
sions to  the  profession  or  prospective  candidates. 

Moreover,  while  these  efforts  to  enlist  stu- 
dents for  the  ministry  have  their  value  and  are 
necessary,  we  must  remember  that  there  is  a  vast 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK         7 

difference  between  a  lad  In  the  academy  or 
college,  promising  to  go  where  the  Master  wants 
him  to  go,  to  enter  the  ministr}'  if  God  reveals 
it  to  him  as  duty,  and  actually  entering  the  mln- 
ist^r^  It  is  a  far  cry  from  high  school  or 
freshman  year  in  college  to  the  ordaining  coun- 
cil, and  many  temptations  must  be  passed  before 
the  consecrating  hands  are  laid  on  the  head  of 
the  young  candidate. 

We  must  remember,  also,  that  enlistment  cam- 
paigns cannot  produce  immediate  fruitage.  Some 
decisions  to  enter  the  ministry  are  made  by 
young  men  after  tliey  enter  college,  but  influences 
leading  them  to  adopt  this  calling  usually  can  be 
traced  far  back  of  the  college  age. 

Ideals  and  hopes  and  longings  for  manhood's 
occupations  begin  to  Influence  our  young  people 
in  their  early  'teens,  A  mother's  prayer,  a 
father's  example,  the  touch  of  some  minister  or 
missionan.'  who  has  appealed  to  the  lad's  ideal 
of  heroism,  gives  the  initial  direction  to  dreams 
and  aspirations. 

The  effective  campaign,  the  campaign  that  will 
ultimatelv    give    to   the    church    the   workers    it 


8         THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

needs,  must  go  back  to  the  home  and  the  lower 
grades  of  school.  It  must  sound  the  knightly 
call  to  the  boys  and  girls  and  cause  their  hearts 
to  thrill  with  the  longing  for  the  ministry  as 
something  worth  while,  something  that  has  in  it 
the  atmosphere  of  romance  and  adventure  that 
surrounded  the  Knights  of  King  Arthur's  Court. 


Consider  him  that  hath  endured  such  gainsaying 
of  sinners  against  himself,  that  ye  wax  not  weary, 
fainting  in  your  souls. — Heb.  12:3. 


CHAPTER  II 

DISCOURAGEMENTS  TO  THE   MINISTRY 

The  question  Inevitably  arises: — ^Why  Is  the 
ministry  falling  to  attract  our  choice  young  men, 
why  are  so  many  ignoring  this  the  oldest  and 
the  most  sacred  of  the  professions? 

Many  elements  enter  into  the  problem,  but 
they  range  themselves  under  a  few  general 
principles. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  reason  Is  found  In 
the  economic  situation. 

The  time  has  long  since  passed  when  even  the 
village  parson  could  think  himself  as  "passing 
rich  on  forty  pounds  a  year,"  or  "supply  his 
simple  needs"  with  any  such  stipend.  The  eco- 
nomic pressure  is  felt  In  every  home,  and  no- 
where more  than  in  the  home  of  the  minister. 
His  position  forces  him  to  certain  high  standards 
of  living  and  public  action.  Personally  he  may 
be  content  to  live  in  the  simplest  style,  but  his 

9 


10      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

public  position  requires  him  to  dress  well,  to 
see  that  his  wife  and  children  are  respectably 
clothed,  and  to  conduct  his  home  with  an  air  of 
prosperity,  comfort  and  hospitality. 

Moreover,  he  is  financially  exploited  for  every 
good  cause,  and  ofttlmes  the  church  expects  his 
name  to  head  the  list  of  its  contributors. 

Sometimes  the  parsonage  is  both  the  minister's 
house  and  the  center  of  the  social  and  religious 
activities  of  the  parish, — a  sort  of  community 
house.  But  the  minister  must  maintain  these 
standards  and  meet  these  requirements  upon  a 
salary  that  averages  $563  less  than  the  minimum 
set  by  investigators  for  the  subsistence  of  the 
ordinary  worklngman's  family. 

At  the  present  time,  carpenters  command  $10 
per  day,  shoeworkers  $75  a  week,  and  machin- 
ists $3,000  a  year.  I  ich  compensations  for 
hand-workers  may  seem  abnormal  in  contrast 
with  the  salaries  of  brain  w  ^rkers,  but  the  wages 
of  such  workers  will  never  sink  to  the  low  levels 
of  present  ministerial  salaries.  The  Interchurch 
Survey  presents  some  startling  facts  concerning 
ministerial  support.     According  to  that  survey, 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       11 

of  "the  170,000  clergymen  in  the  United  States 
in  19 1 6,  less  than  one-half  of  them  received 
more  than  $700  per  year.  Only  1,671  ministers, 
or  less  than  one  per  cent,  had  a  total  income 
of  $3,000  or  more.  Eighty-four  per  cent,  of 
the  ministers  receive  less  than  $1,000  per 
year."  "Out  of  every  hundred  ministers  only 
one  receives  $4,000  or  more;  two  receive 
$3yOOO  or  more;  seven  receive  $2,000.  or 
more;  sixteen  receive  $1,500  or  more;  and 
eighty-four  receive  less  than  $1,000.  Thirteen 
out  of  every  hundred  ministers  receive  less 
than  $500. 

If  the  incomes  of  the  laymen  were  propor- 
tionate to  these  meagre  salaries,  the  clergy  could 
find  no  fault.  But  in  the  churches  themselves, 
ofttimes  we  have  vast  disparity  between  the 
physical  comfort  of  tHe  pastor  and  his  parish- 
ioners, the  members  ^^eeming  to  forget  that  the 
spiritual  leader  of  tfi'e  flock  should  share  in  the 
material  prosperity  that  is  given  to  its  members. 
God  calls  some  men  to  preach  and  some  to  make 
money,  but  He  expects  those  who  make  money 
to  share  it  with  those  who  preach.    The  beauties 


12       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

of  sacrifice  appear  to  best  advantage  when  shared 
alike  by  all  God's  people. 

It  is  obvious  that  in  an  age  when  material 
influences  are  so  potent,  and  the  very  comforts 
of  life  so  expensive,  it  is  unbrotherly  in  spirit 
and  unwise  in  policy  to  ask  any  class  or  profes- 
sion to  make  the  material  sacrifices  that  are 
required  of  the  ministry.  Such  requirements  will 
inevitably  react  upon  the  personnel  of  the  min- 
istry and  tend  to  drive  from  it  the  very  type  of 
men  most  needed  by  the  profession. 

In  close  relation  to  this  limitation  of  money 
earning  power  is  the  limitation  of  the  earning 
period.  The  financial  basis  of  the  ministry 
seems  to  be  different  from  that  of  all  other  pro- 
fessions. The  lawyer  and  the  physician  can 
hope  not  only  to  lay  up  a  competence  for  old 
age,  but  to  have  their  earning  power  extend  until 
physical  infirmity  lays  them  aside.  Moreover, 
as  long  as  their  physical  and  mental  faculties  are 
maintained,  added  years  of  age  adds  to  their 
supposed  value  to  society,  and  increases  their 
earning  power. 

The  minister  faces  absolutely  different  condi- 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       13 

tions.  He  is  required  to  spend  In  training  for 
his  work  just  as  many  years  as  the  lawyer  or 
physician  or  professor,  but  when  they  are  at 
their  zenith  of  power  and  usefulness — honored 
by  reason  of  their  experience — he  finds  himself 
discounted,  and  pulpits  closed  to  him  by  reason 
of  age. 

Pension  systems,  nobly  devised,  help  In  some 
measure  to  alleviate  these  conditions,  but  they 
are  not  the  real  answers  to  this  social  Injustice 
practised  against  the  minister.  Such  schemes  are 
at  best  only  salves  to  sore  hearts  and  soothing 
syrups  to  anxious  souls. 

Is  it  any  marvel  that  experiencing  such  condi- 
tions some  excellent  men  lose  the  fine  Idealism 
that  led  them  to  enter  the  ministry,  and  either 
become  mercenary  in  spirit  or  forsake  the  work? 
It  is  the  custom  to  condemn  the  minister  who 
leaves  the  calling  and  enters  business.  He  Is 
often  criticised  both  ungraciously  and  cruelly. 
But  such  action  may  not  be  a  sign  of  venality, 
but  an  indication  of  mental  and  moral  integrity 
and  high  courage.  No  minister  can  maintain  the 
splendid  fervor  necessary  for  his  work,  or  reach 


14       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

any  high  plane  of  success,  who  has  lost  the  noble 
idealism  that  enables  him  to  esteem  his  work  as 
beautiful,  as  necessary  to  mankind,  as  given  him 
of  God. 

Some  men,  painfully  conscious  of  this  loss  of 
soul  vision  and  Its  Implications,  conscientiously 
turn  from  the  ministry  to  other  occupations. 

A  few  years  since,  The  Standard  of  Chicago 
printed  a  letter,  quoted  by  Dr.  Robertson,  from 
a  minister  who  was  leaving  the  ministry,  in  which 
the  writer  said:  "I  am  tired;  tired  of  being  the 
only  one  In  the  church  from  whom  real  sacrifice 
is  expected;  tired  of  straining  and  tugging  to  get 
Christian  people  to  live  like  Christians;  tired  of 
planning  work  for  my  people  and  then  being 
compelled  to  do  It  myself  or  see  It  left  undone; 
tired  of  dodging  my  creditors  when  I  would  not 
need  to  if  I  had  what  was  due  me;  tired  of  the 
affrighting  vision  of  a  penniless  old  age.  I  am 
not  leaving  Christ,  I  love  Him.  I  shall  still  try 
to  serve  Him."  This  may  be  an  extreme  In- 
stance, and  yet  It  does  not  stand  alone.  More 
than  one  minister,  tired  of  these  bitter  experi- 
ences,   finds    It    difficult    to    conscientiously    or 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       15 

joyously  summon  his  own  sons,  or  the  sons  of 
his  church,  to  enter  the  profession  that  leads 
through  so  many  Gethsemane  experiences. 

Moreover,  choice  young  men  looking  forward 
to  life's  work,  inevitably  consider  these  things  as 
factors  entering  into  their  decisions.  What 
more  natural  than  to  ask — "Why  should  other 
men  have  so  much  and  the  minister  so  little?  Is 
the  minister  being  treated  fairly?  Why  should 
I  sacrifice  the  material  goods  of  life  or  demand 
such  denials  upon  the  part  of  my  family?"  The 
truth  is,  every  thoughtful  man,  whether  of  the 
clergy  or  laity,  should  face  the  question: — "Is 
it  right  to  ask  the  minister  to  contribute  so 
much  to  the  welfare  of  the  nation  and  the 
uplift  of  humanity;  to  brighten  the  lot  of  all  men, 
and  yet  to  have  for  himself  or  his  loved  ones 
no  adequate  share  in  the  material  benefits  that 
flow  from  these  Improved  conditions  of  society?" 

2.  The  second  reason  that  Is  discouraging 
many  excellent  young  men  is  the  assumption  and 
assertion  that  the  minister  has  no  worthy  place 
In  the  community;  that  his  contribution  to  society 
IS  not  of  any  great  value;  that  his  task  Is  not 


16      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

a  man's  sized  job.  This  feeling,  widely  preva- 
lent in  certain  circles  of  society,  has  been  the 
subject  of  discussion  and  re-emphasis  lately  in 
some  of  our  popular  magazines. 

In  opening  his  Yale  Lectures,  Dr.  A.  J.  F. 
Behrends  called  attention  to  the  effects  upon  the 
individual  of  such  suspicions  concerning  the 
worthiness  of  his  vocation,  and  enforced  the 
necessity  of  the  worker  maintaining  the  convic- 
tion that  his  labor  was  necessary  to  the  welfare 
of  the  world.  "No  man  can  achieve  solid  and 
satisfactory  success  in  any  calling,  who  is  not 
convinced  that  the  services  which  he  renders  are 
of  substantial  benefit  to  the  public,  and  that  what 
he  gives  is  a  full  equivalent  for  what  he  receives. 
He  who  suspects  that  he  is  merely  tolerated,  or 
that  he  occupies  the  place  of  a  dependent,  or 
who  discovers  that  he  is  retained  when  he  has 
ceased  to  supply  a  living  demand,  inevitably 
suffers  in  the  consciousness  of  manly  independ- 
ence; and  where  manhood  shrivels,  work  loses 
its  dignity  and  power."  "To  this  wholesome 
law,"  Dr.  Behrends  adds,  "the  pulpit  is  no 
exception." 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       17 

The  present  propaganda  of  suggestive  suspi- 
cion and  distrust  concerning  the  ministry,  has 
resulted  in  just  such  mischievous  reactions  in 
both  men  already  in  the  ministry  and  sturdy 
youths  who  have  been  considering  it  as  a  pos- 
sible calling.  Why  enter  a  profession  where 
manly  qualities  are  at  discount?  Why  remain  in 
a  calling  that  is  not  rendering  worthwhile  serv- 
ice— especially  when  other  and  more  essential 
occupations  yield  greater  rewards  of  material 
good? 

It  is  perfectly  legitimate  to  ask  the  reasons 
for  the  m.inister's  existence  in  the  community,  to 
question  what  his  place  is  in  modern  life,  and 
what  is  his  real  contribution  to  the  welfare  of 
mankind. 

All  trades  and  professions  are  subjects  for 
such  questioning  and  must  justify  themselves  to 
society. 

The  danger  point  in  such  questioning  of  the 
minister's  task  is  in  the  character  of  the  ques- 
tioner. Too  often,  men,  who  by  nature  and 
prejudices  are  unfitted  to  pass  judgment  upon  the 
higher   values   of   life,    sit   in   the    seat   of   the 


18       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

judges.  They  do  not  understand  the  nature  of 
the  minister's  task;  they  cannot  see  or  realize 
that  he  is  dealing  with  intangibles,  with  processes 
and  results  so  largely  in  the  realm  of  the  spir- 
itual that  their  evaluation  is  difficult,  and  to  the 
man  who  looks  for  material  tokens  almost 
impossible.  When  the  carpenter  builds  a  house, 
or  the  shoemaker  completes  a  pair  of  shoes,  you 
see  the  thing  he  has  been  doing;  the  finished 
product  is  evident;  but  the  minister  is  working 
with  minds  and  spirits, — he  is  molding  char- 
acter, and  much  of  his  work  must  be  unseen  by 
human  eyes.  The  passing  of  time,  however,  is 
certain  to  reveal  the  comparative  values  of  such 
occupations. 

The  maker  of  sandals  in  ancient  Capernaum 
filled  an  important  place,  but  the  fame  of  that 
city  rests,  not  upon  the  maker  of  sandals,  but 
upon  its  association  with  the  name  of  the  Naz- 
arene  prophet  and  teacher.  The  tent-maker  of 
Corinth,  in  whose  workshop  Saul  of  Tarsus 
earned  his  living,  did  a  worthwhile  work,  but 
we  have  forgotten  his  name,  while  his  employee, 
the  preacher,  proclaimed  a  message  whose  influ- 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       19 

ence  sapped  the  foundations  of  Imperial  Rome 
and  built  a  new  civilization. 

The  Great  Teacher  said  long  ago:  "Man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone."  Men  must  have 
ideals,  visions  and  hopes  that  they  endeavor  to 
realize  for  themselves  and  in  society.  Character 
is  built,  not  of  brick  and  stone  or  bread  and 
meat,  but  of  the  things  we  call  dreams,  visions 
and  ideals.  Character  is  the  fruitage  of  princi- 
ples, and  principles  are  the  blossoming  of  dreams 
and  ideals.  The  foundations  of  a  nation,  the 
structure  of  its  society,  is  not  laid  in  wealth  or 
territory,  but  in  the  character  of  its  citizenship. 

The  minister's  task  is  to  give  the  people  the 
stuff  out  of  which  character  Is  formed,  and  to 
guide  and  inspire  them  in  the  use  of  this  char- 
acter material.  This  is  not  a  task  that  can  be 
esteemed  lightly  or  measured  with  yardstick  or 
scales. 

It  Is  far  easier  to  build  a  cathedral,  to  erect 
a  factory,  to  lay  an  ocean  cable,  or  to  construct 
a  railroad,  than  to  mold  a  life  into  a  thing  of 
beauty  and  nobility,  to  regenerate  the  slum  sec- 
tion of  a  great  city,  or  to  overthrow  the  igno- 


20       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

ranee  and  bigotry  of  a  false  religion  and  substi- 
tute in  its  place  Christian  conceptions  and 
principles.  It  is  easier  to  give  men  jobs  to  earn 
bread,  than  visions  of  God  that  satisfy  souls, 
and  interpret  for  them,  time  and  eternity. 
But  as  H.  G.  Wells  makes  Mr.  Brittling  say: 
"Religion  is  the  first  thing  and  the  last  thing, 
and  until  a  man  has  found  God  and  has  been 
found  by  God,  he  begins  at  no  beginning,  he 
works  to  no  end.  He  may  have  his  friendships, 
his  partial  loyalties,  his  scraps  of  honor.  But 
all  these  things  fall  into  place  and  life  falls  into 
place  only  with  God." 

The  minister's  task  is  really  the  hardest  task 
given  to  mortal  man,  but  it  is  absolutely  funda- 
mental to  the  perpetuity  of  the  state  and  nation, 
and  to  the  welfare  of  the  race.  Upon  the  min- 
ister's success  or  failure  depends  practically  all 
that  is  valuable  in  human  society.  His  work 
controls  the  dev^elopment  of  human  history  in  its 
noblest  aspects,  and  his  profession  remains  a 
living,  burning  need  of  the  race  until  the  "king- 
doms of  this  world  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
God  and  His  Christ." 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       21 

3.  A  very  potent  influence  diverting  our 
young  men  from  the  regular  lines  of  the  ministry 
is  the  pressure  for  workers  in  benevolent  and 
semi-religious  organizations. 

In  past  days  the  young  man  who  desired  to 
do  religious  work  found  himself  limited  prac- 
tically to  the  pastorate  of  a  single  congregation 
or  to  missionary  service.  But  our  conceptions  of 
what  is  religious  service  have  been  continually 
widening,  and  the  field  of  opportunity  conse- 
quently has  been  broadened. 

Many  avenues  of  endeavor  offer  outlet  to  the 
instinct  or  desire  to  serve  the  race  religiously. 
The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  tem- 
perance and  other  reform  movements,  social 
uplift  societies,  benevolent  and  charitable  organ- 
izations— all  of  them  forms  of  life  where  val- 
uable service  to  humanity  may  be  rendered — 
present  their  claims  upon  the  life  and  talent  of 
the  youth  of  this  generation.  And  these  new 
fields  usually  promise  two  advantages  over  the 
regular  ministry — they  offer  better  financial  re- 
turns, and  are  free  from  many  of  the  limitations 
that  surround  the  pastor  or  worker  attached  to 


22       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

the  church  organization.  The  call  for  competent 
workers  in  these  fields  is  just  as  great  as  the  call 
for  men  in  the  regular  ministry,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  many  choice  young  men  choose 
such  forms  of  service.  As  one  stalwart  youth 
said  to  his  minister  father  who  was  pleading 
with  him  to  enter  the  ministry:  "I  am  doing 
religious  service.  I  am  helping  to  bring  in  God's 
kingdom  through  the  organization  with  which  I 
am  working,  and  at  the  same  time  I  am  getting 
three  times  the  salary  that  you  have  received. 
Why  should  I  give  up  the  comparative  freedom 
of  my  place  and  its  comfortable  income  for  the 
meagre  salary  and  limitations  of  a  church 
pastorate." 

Of  course,  the  young  men  who  argue  thus  fail 
to  see  that  these  organizations  outside  of  the 
church  have  no  future  apart  from  the  church; 
that  their  continuance  is  dependent  upon  the 
favor  and  support  of  the  church,  and  that  they 
can  offer  careers  for  men  only  as  the  church 
gives  them  of  its  comfort  and  assistance.  Roger 
W.  Babson,  in  his  book,  "Religion  and  Busi- 
ness," asserts  that  "religion  is  the  greatest  unde- 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       23 

veloped  resource  of  America  to-day."  But  this 
resource  that  means  so  much  to  the  nation  and 
the  world  will  not  be  tapped  by  seml-rellglous 
organizations  or  Independent  prospectors.  The 
church,  with  its  complex  and  far-reaching  organ- 
ization, its  heritage  of  tradition,  and  Its  centuries 
of  capitalized  life  and  devotion,  is  the  only  insti- 
tution that  can  successfully  make  available  for 
the  state  and  society  this  mighty  resource  of 
religion. 

4.  A  very  obvious  reason  for  the  failure  of 
our  young  people  to  consider  the  ministry  seri- 
ously lies  in  the  attitude  of  the  church.  For  a 
long  time  the  churches  have  neglected  to  empha- 
size the  ministry  as  a  divine  calling,  to  pray  for 
the  young  men  to  give  their  lives  to  it,  and  tp 
hold  it  up  to  the  young  people  as  the  great  thing 
to  be  desired. 

Prayer  services  are  seldom  devoted  to  consid- 
eration of  the  claims  of  the  ministry  upon  the 
church  and  its  young  people;  and  ministers  are 
singularly  reticent  about  presenting  the  matter  In 
the  pulpit. 

Several  years  since,  a  general  secretary  put  the 


24      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

question  before  a  series  of  church  associations 
representing  over  three  hundred  churches,  and  to 
his  surprise  only  one  per  cent,  of  the  churches 
had  given  any  consideration  to  the  matter  at 
prayer  meeting  or  stated  service  within  a  year, 
while  representatives  of  scores  of  churches  could 
not  remember  any  public  presentation  to  their 
membership  of  the  work  of  the  ministry  and  its 
claims  upon  the  young  life  of  the  church. 

A  few  generations  ago  It  was  not  unusual  for 
parents  to  dedicate  their  new-born  sons  to  this 
holy  work;  and  when  those  sons,  grown  to  man- 
hood, adopted  the  profession,  to  rejoice  in  their 
boy's  choice  as  the  greatest  reward  that  could 
come  to  their  faith.  But  these  new  days  have 
brought  a  totally  different  attitude.  Many  par- 
ents seem  to  regard  it  as  a  misfortune  when 
their  boys  want  to  enter  the  ministry;  and  some, 
when  they  see  signs  of  interest  in  the  profession 
upon  the  part  of  their  sons,  deliberately  seek  to 
divert  the  mind  to  other  trades  and  professions. 
Perhaps  the  prevalent  critical  attitude  toward 
the  minister  has  influenced  some  of  these  parents, 
and  certainly  It  has  had  a  chilling  effect  upon 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       25 

the    enthusiasm    and    devotion   of    some    of    the 
young  people. 

Apparently  everybody  in  the  church  under- 
stands how  to  run  the  church  better  than  the 
minister,  and  does  not  hesitate  to  let  him  know 
it.  Every  member,  and  many  who  are  not  mem- 
bers, feel  perfectly  competent  to  instruct  the 
minister  in  theology,  biblical  interpretation  and 
other  religious  subjects.  The  physician  or  the 
lawyer  or  the  engineer  is  supposed  to  know  his 
profession  better  than  the  layman,  but  everybody 
feels  abundantly  able  to  pass  judgment  upon  the 
minister's  work,  and  to  teach  him  the  principles 
of  his  profession. 

Is  it  any  marvel  that  high-strung  young  men 
resent  this  attitude  and  decline  to  enter  a  pro- 
fession where  it  is  possible  for  them  to  be  sub- 
jected to  such  humiliations? 

The  red-blooded  young  man  does  not  want  to 
be  glorified  because  of  his  profession,  but  he 
does  want  to  feel  that  his  work  is  worth  while, 
that  the  church  at  least  respects  his  leadership 
and  service. 

The  church  must  catch  a   new  vision   of  its 


26      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

ministry,  place  it  in  a  nobler  position  of  honor, 
and  give,  to  those  who  adopt  it  as  a  profession, 
the  respect  and  attention  given  to  other  pro- 
fessions. 

The  economic  situation,  the  critical  attitude 
concerning  the  worthiness  of  the  minister's  con- 
tribution to  society,  the  demand  for  workers  in 
other  related  occupations,  and  the  apparent 
unconcern  of  the  church  are  all  evident  reasons 
for  the  decline  In  the  ministry  and  its  failing 
appeal  to  our  young  men;  but  they  are  not  final 
causes. 

The  ultimate  reasons  lie  deep  in  the  spirit  of 
man,  in  the  pervading  atmosphere  of  the  age, 
and  in  the  very  nature  of  the  call  to  the  min- 
istry and  the  minister's  work. 

Two  things  must  be  remembered.  During  the 
last  fifty  years  we  have  been  passing  through  a 
tremendous  intellectual  revolution.  Philosophy, 
history,  pedagogy,  and  theology  have  all  been 
influenced  by  the  discoveries  in  biology  and  other 
physical  sciences.  The  intellectual  attitude  for  a 
generation  has  been  that  of  questioning.  The 
bases   of    religious    faith   have   therefore    come 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       27 

under  the  microscope  of  investigation  and  rea- 
son. This  attitude  carried  into  the  classroom 
of  our  schools  and  applied  to  religious  questions 
without  tact  or  discrimination,  has  undoubtedly 
had  its  harmful  reactions  upon  the  young  men. 
The  atmosphere  of  doubt  and  questioning  is  not 
the  atmosphere  in  which  preachers  are  bom  and 
reared. 

It  should  be  noted,  also,  that  lately  the  spir- 
itual life  of  the  churches  of  our  land  has  not 
been  of  the  type  to  emphasize  the  call  to  the 
ministry.  We  have  had  sporadic  revivals  in 
various  sections,  and  a  certain  kind  of  ethical 
quickening  that  has  made  us  more  responsive  to 
social  problems  and  to  the  appeals  of  human 
suffering,  but  we  have  not  had  any  great  awaken- 
ing of  the  spiritual  conscience  of  the  nation  such 
as  would  make  our  youth  feel  the  divine  neces- 
sity of  preaching  the  gospel. 

The  call  to  the  ministry  Is  born  Into  the  soul 
on  the  swelling  tide  of  the  spiritual  experience 
of  eternal  things,  and  we  have  had  few  such 
tides  sweeping  over  our  land  in  the  last  half 
century. 


28      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

The  young  men  and  women  of  the  present  are 
just  as  earnest  and  sincere,  just  as  willing  to 
sacrifice  for  noble  principles  and  ideals  as  the 
young  people  of  the  past.  They  will  gladly 
ignore  material  benefits  and  turn  from  worldly 
honors  if  they  can  be  shown  the  real  heroism  of 
the  ministry;  the  knightliness  of  its  work;  the 
worthiness  of  its  achievements.  They  will  gladly 
cry:  "Here  we  are,  send  us  into  service,"  when 
the  church  experiences  the  spiritual  awakening 
for  which  so  many  of  the  "elect  of  God"  are 
hoping,  praying  and  laboring. 

In  the  last  analysis  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem lies  in  the  spiritual  atmosphere  of  the  church 
of  God.  The  supreme  duty  of  the  church  to-day 
is  to  secure  such  an  atmosphere  of  religious 
fervor,  such  a  consciousness  of  the  realities  of 
religious  life,  that  it  becomes  natural  for  its 
young  men  to  consider  the  work  of  the  ministry 
as  the  choice  occupation,  the  profession  in  which 
they  may  secure  the  greatest  satisfactions  and 
the  largest  usefulness  possible  to  mortal  man. 


Come  ye  after   me,   and  I  will  make  you  fishers 
of  men. — Matt.  4:19. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  CALL  TO  THE   MINISTRY 

It  is  inevitable  that  the  prevailing  spirit  of 
our  times,  that  is  confessedly  material  and  prac- 
tical, should  influence  the  young  men  and  women 
in  their  ideals  and  personal  spirit,  and  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  determine  their  choices  of  life  occupa- 
tions. The  individual  spirit  reacts  to  the  larger 
class  or  age  spirit,  and  it  requires  hardy  souls, 
souls  of  unusual  strength,  to  resist  the  prevalent 
spirit  of  their  times.  Moreover,  much  of  the 
evil  is  clothed  with  a  sweet  persuasiveness  that 
charms  the  unsuspecting  and  leads  astray  even 
the  elect. 

The  spirit  of  the  times  is  even  reflected  in  the 
motives  that  are  presented  to  our  young  people 
for  entering  the  ministry.  To  be  effective,  the 
motive  for  entering  the  ministry  must  be  strong 
enough  both  to  influence  the  decision  in  the  begin- 
ning, and  to  hold  the  will  and  purpose  afterward 
— to  keep  the  soul  in  the  day  when  the  tempta- 

29 


30      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

tions  of  ease  or  pleasure  are  met,  or  hardship 
must  be  endured  either  In  the  minister's  own  per- 
son or  In  the  persons  of  those  In  his  household 
whom  he  should  love  better  than  his  own  life. 

An  examination  of  the  motives  presented  to 
our  young  people  reveals  the  fact  that  for  some 
little  time  the  appeals  have  been  based  some- 
what largely  on  altruistic  motives.  We  have 
been  saying  to  our  young  men:  "Go  into  the 
ministry  or  some  form  of  religious  service 
because  the  world  needs  you  so  sorely;  its  heart- 
aches must  be  assuaged;  its  wounds  of  body  and 
mind  must  be  healed;  the  wrongs  righted  and 
the  darkness  driven  out,"  or  we  have  placed  the 
emphasis  upon  the  other  aspect  and  said:  "In 
such  service  you  can  make  your  life  count  for  the 
most,  you  can  aid  best  in  meeting  the  needs  of 
the  race,  in  building  up  a  new  civilization." 

These  things  are  true,  the  world  does  need 
builders  of  its  moral  and  religious  life  more  than 
anything  else ;  It  does  need  men  who  have  caught 
the  vision  of  service  and  are  willing  to  minister 
to  its  necessities;  It  Is  true  that  no  profession 
offers  a  wider  field  of  usefulness  than  the  min- 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       31 

istry  with  its  manifold  forms  of  service;  but 
these  are  not  the  ultimates  in  the  call  to  the  min- 
istry. We  need  something  deeper  than  these 
things,  something  upon  which  these  motives  may 
rest,  if  the  ministry  is  to  have  its  rightful  appeal 
and  rightful  place  in  the  thought  of  the  church 
and  the  ideals  of  our  young  men. 

The  simply  altruistic  motives  lose  their  fresh- 
ness of  appeal  after  a  time;  they  fail  to  sustain 
the  minister's  courage  when  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren are  suffering  for  the  common  things  that 
give  pleasure  to  life;  and  they  do  not  furnish 
companionship  and  solace  for  the  soul  in  the 
loneliness  of  the  strange  land. 

The  work  of  the  minister  and  missionary  is  of 
such  character,  and  makes  such  drafts  upon  the 
soul,  that  deep  in  the  heart  must  be  the  con- 
sciousness of  an  overmastering  call;  the  imperial 
power  of  an  "I  ought,"  the  conviction — "Woe  is 
me  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel."  The  young  man 
of  today  may  not  have  the  wonderful  vision 
such  as  summoned  Isaiah  to  service;  nor  with 
Ezekiel  hear  the  voice  saying:  "Before  thou 
camest  forth  out  of  the  womb  I  sanctified  thee"; 


32       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

nor  yet  In  trance-like  state  hear  with  Paul  the 
message :  "Depart,  for  I  will  send  thee  far  hence 
to  the  Gentiles."  Such  special  forms  of  calls  are 
given  to  men  who  have  special  missions,  but  they 
do  suggest  the  norm  of  conviction  that  must 
enter  the  soul.  The  ministry  must  be,  not  of 
man's  choosing  but  God's  calling,  and  the  man 
who  elects  It  must  feel  the  burning  of  the  mes- 
sage In  his  soul. 

The  man  who  has  such  a  conviction  will  not 
be  thwarted  by  difficulties  nor  turned  aside  by 
temptations.  The  divine  "I  must"  will  drive 
him  on  to  labor  and  sacrifice  and  service. 

At  first  thought  It  may  seem  that  to  emphasize 
this  aspect  of  the  call  would  deplete  the  ranks 
of  the  ministry,  or  at  least  prevent  some  young 
men  from  enlisting.  Of  course,  one  man  divinely 
driven  Into  the  ministry  is  worth  more  than  a 
multitude  who  select  it  without  this  overmaster- 
ing compulsion. 

Perhaps,  however,  the  insistence  upon  this 
form  of  call  would  really  direct  attention  to  the 
ministry.  Make  men  think,  and  thought  will 
lead  to  conviction  and  conviction  to  action. 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       33 

This  was  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  when  he  said: 
"He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than  me 
is  not  worthy  of  me;  and  he  that  loveth  son  or 
daughter  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me. 
And  he  that  taketh  not  his  cross,  and  followeth 
after  me,  is  not  worthy  of  me." 

It  is  apparent  that  the  key  to  the  unrest  in  the 
younger  ministers,  and  the  secret  reason  that  so 
many  students  lose  their  interest  and  drift  away 
from  their  purpose  of  entering  the  ministry,  may 
be  found  in  the  motives  that  are  being  pre- 
sented to  them.  Men  will  endure  sacrifice  and 
suffering  if  the  motive  is  potent.  If  the  objective 
seems  worth  while.  This  is  true  in  every  realm 
of  life.  Peary  was  willing  to  endure  indescrib- 
able agony  and  privation  for  the  honor  of  being 
the  first  man  to  reach  the  North  Pole.  Marcus 
Whitman  gladly  braved  dangers  and  toils  that  he 
might  save  the  Northwest  Territory  for  his  coun- 
try. The  youth  of  America  have  never  hesi- 
tated to  offer  themselves  for  service  when  they 
felt  that  the  country  needed  them.  The  suffi- 
cient motive  has  never  failed  to  evoke  the  suffi- 
cient response. 


34      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

The  young  men  and  women  of  the  churches 
are  not  different  from  the  rest  of  their  age. 
They  will  not  shrink  from  the  sacrifice  and  hard- 
ships of  the  ministry  if  the  sufficient  motive  of  a 
worthy  service  to  which  they  are  divinely  called 
is  presented  to  them.  The  church  does  not  need 
to  reject  the  motives  it  has  been  presenting,  but 
to  revise  Its  points  of  emphasis;  to  visualize 
anew  the  things  that  have  been  growing  dim  in 
its  thought  and  ideal,  and  to  stress  the  divine, 
the  holy  nature  of  the  call. 

Modern  China  stretching  out  Its  famine  stricken 
arms  to  America,  or  oppressed  Armenia  blindly 
reaching  forth  her  shackled  hands,  may  become 
the  "Macedonian  Vision"  through  which  God 
speaks  to  the  young  men  and  women  of  today. 

The  human  cry  of  need  may  move  the  heart 
and  become  the  messenger  of  divine  impressment 
— the  voice  of  the  passing  Christ  calling:  "Fol- 
low me,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men." 


If  a  man  seeketh  the  office  of  a  bishop,  he  desir- 
eth  a  good  work. — 1   Tim.  3 :1. 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE   CANDIDATE    FOR   THE   MINISTRY 

It  is  evident,  even  to  the  casual  observer,  that 
many  men  and  women  have  not  chosen  wisely 
the  occupations  or  professions  in  which  they  are 
engaged.  What  may  be  termed  misfits  are  found 
in  every  occupation, — ^lawyers  who  ought  to  be 
farmers,  merchants  who  should  be  artisans,  arti- 
sans who  should  be  captains  of  industry,  teachers 
who  ought  to  be  anything  other  than  what  they 
are  trying  to  be,  men  and  women  in  every  trade 
and  profession  who  seem  to  be  poorly  fitted  for 
efficient  service  in  the  occupation  in  which  they  are 
engaged. 

The  ministry  is  no  exception  to  this  statement, 
for  it  has  its  misfits,  men  who  are  palpably 
unfitted  to  do  their  best  in  the  work  they  are 
striving  to  do. 

Many  times  these  men  are  choice  souls  with 
holy  desire  to  serve  God;  but  some  physical  de- 
fect, some  deficiency  in  education  or  culture,  some 

35 


36       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

tendency  to  mental  aberration  or  astigmatism, 
handicaps  them  in  the  race  for  success. 

These  seemingly  unfit  men  are  not  always 
wholly  at  fault  in  their  choice  of  the  ministry. 
Sometimes  others  are  blameworthy — an  over- 
zealous  mother,  an  unwise  pastor,  or  unthinking 
friends  have  crowded  them  into  the  selection  of 
the  ministry  as  their  life-work. 

Sometimes  these  men  are  conscious  of  their 
limitations,  but  conditions  are  such  that  they 
cannot  enter  some  other  calling  or  they  have 
not  quite  the  courage  to  acknowledge  their 
mistake  and  begin  over  again  the  work  of 
life. 

The  struggles  of  such  men  arc  ofttimes 
pathetic  as  they  strive  to  be  faithful  to  tasks 
that  are  distasteful. 

It  is  true  that  God  has  used  some  strange 
agents  for  the  glory  of  his  kingdom,  servants 
whose  adaptability  for  their  work  the  world 
would  have  seriously  questioned.  We  would  not 
dare  to  interfere  with  the  calling  of  men  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  but  it  is  not  fair  to  our  young  peo- 
ple, nor  to  the  church,  to  fail  in  frankness  in 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       37 

advising  with  young  men  who  are  considering  the 
ministry  as  a  profession. 

The  work  of  the  ministry  is  too  serious,  and 
the  demands  upon  the  modern  minister  are  too 
exacting  for  any  young  man  to  enter  the  work 
without  facing  squarely  its  exactions,  limitations 
and  requisites  to  success. 

One  of  the  fundamental  questions  for  the  can- 
didate is  the  question  of  personal  health.  The 
young  man  should  ask  himself,  "Am  I  physi- 
cally adapted  to  the  exacting  duties  of  the 
ministry?" 

We  have  often  been  reminded  that  "The  body 
is  not  the  measure  of  the  soul,"  and  yet  as  Dr. 
Behrends  tells  us,  "Preaching  is  always  an  ath- 
letic contest,  a  close  grappling  and  serious 
wrestle,  and  whether  the  result  shall  be  conquest, 
or  defeat,  or  a  drawn  battle,  will  depend  upon 
the  perfect  command  the  preacher  has  of  his 
thoughts  and  himself." 

Under  the  Jewish  dispensation,  the  priest  who 
served  in  the  temple  was  supposed  to  be  without 
blemish,  physically.  The  New  Testament  does 
not  insist  upon  that  canon  of  perfection  for  the 


38       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

Christian  minister,  and  many  noble  and  fruitful 
workers  have  been  handicapped  in  some  way. 
Robert  Hall,  the  supreme  master  of  pulpit  style 
and  eloquence;  George  Matheson,  the  blind  poet 
whose  pathetic  hymns  have  voiced  the  yearnings 
of  many  hearts;  Horace  Bushnell,  the  prophet  of 
a  new  era  in  theology  in  New  England;  the 
Apostle  Paul  himself,  these,  and  scores  of  others 
like  them,  have  wrought  nobly  and  "worked 
righteousness"  notwithstanding  their  physical  dis- 
abilities. 

But  to-day  the  anemic,  the  frail  framed  ascetic, 
the  man  of  weak,  nervous  vitality  finds  himself 
under  an  avalanche  of  demands  that  physical 
strength  will  not  permit  him  to  meet. 

The  minister  is  no  longer  the  "quiet  student 
of  past  days";  he  is  a  man  of  affairs,  with  a 
multitude  of  interests  demanding  his  time  and 
tapping  his  reservoirs  of  nervous  energy.  The 
modern  minister  must  keep  fit  physically  or  he 
cannot  meet  the  conditions  of  this  strenuous  age. 
Possibly  the  ideal  of  the  present  time  is  not  the 
best,  and  its  requirements  may  not  be  of  the 
highest,  but  we  face  facts  not  theories,  and  are 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       39 

considering  conditions  as  they  must  be  met  in  this 
twentieth  century. 

It  would  seem  not  to  be  necessary  to  suggest 
that  men  with  serious  imperfections  in  the  organs 
of  speech,  or  conspicuous  and  unsightly  blem- 
ishes in  physical  appearance,  should  weigh  care- 
fully such  handicaps;  but  unfortunately,  friends 
are  not  always  frank,  and  ofttimes  we  do  not 
"see  ourselves  as  others  see  us."  More  than 
one  man  suffering  from  serious  physical  defects 
has  spent  years  in  preparation  for  the  ministry 
only  to  awaken  to  the  bitter  consciousness  that 
some  one  was  not  frank  and  friendly  and  chris- 
tian in  advising  him. 

The  second  canon  that  should  be  observed 
concerns  the  intellectual  power;  the  minister 
should  not  be,  mentally,  either  indolent  or 
erratic. 

The  drudgery  of  the  study  is  irksome  to  many 
men,  especially  to  men  of  brilliant  parts  who 
have  a  gift  for  language.  As  the  result,  words 
take  the  place  of  ideas,  and  nicely  turned  phrases 
the  place  of  golden  nuggets  of  truth.  It  wasi 
jokingly  said  of  one  brilliant  man  that  "he  was 


40       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

so  indolent  that  he  had  not  conceived  a  new  idea 
since  he  left  the  seminary." 

But  genius  is  not  the  substitute  for  labor. 
Only  the  sweat  of  the  brain  will  keep  the  mind 
fresh  and  furnish  a  message  for  the  world.  God 
inspires  men  to  preach,  but  he  inspires  them 
through  their  toils.  The  great  minister  must 
be  a  great  worker  or  his  greatness  soon  departs. 

But  neither  genius  nor  labor  are  substitutes 
for  mental  poise — for  the  power  to  hold  in  right 
relationships  the  principles,  the  truths,  and  the 
ideals  of  revelation. 

It  is  undeniable  that  God  has  sometimes  used 
men  of  erratic  tendencies  for  the  good  of  the 
race,  but,  from  the  Apostolic  days  to  the  pres- 
ent hour,  the  Church  of  Christ  has  suffered  from 
the  unbalanced  mentality  of  leaders  who  have 
over-emphasized  particular  phases  of  truth  and 
doctrine. 

The  history  of  the  church  may  be  written  from 
the  story  of  its  struggles  with  these  honest  but 
mentally  astigmatised  followers.  The  Apostle 
Paul,  who  had  suffered  acutely  from  these  per- 
verted  thinkers,   was   thinking   of   these   things 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       41 

when  he  wrote  to  Timothy :  "God  hath  not  given 
us  the  spirit  of  fear;  but  of  power,  and  of  love, 
and  of  a  sound  mind.  Hold  fast  the  form  of 
sound  words,  which  thou  hast  heard  of  me,  in 
faith  and  love  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus." 

This  soundness  of  mind,  this  sanity  and  poise 
of  mental  life  is  a  gift  to  be  both  coveted  and 
courted  by  all,  and  especially  by  the  minister. 
Situations  are  arising  continually,  both  in  per- 
sonal life  and  public  relationships,  that  require 
clear  thinking  and  sound  judgment  on  the  part 
of  the  minister.  The  present  world  crisis  stresses 
this  requirement.  It  is  so  easy  to  permit  the 
passions  and  prejudices  engendered  by  the  world 
war  to  influence  the  judgment  or  lead  to  the  mis- 
reading of  the  providence  of  God  in  his  dealing 
with  the  nation;  or  to  confuse  the  desires  of  our 
hearts  with  the  clear  utterances  of  revelation. 
Sanity  in  thought,  balance  in  judgment,  sound- 
ness of  mind  has  been  one  of  the  needs  of  the 
ministry  in  all  ages,  and  it  is  especially  needed 
in  this  hour  when  the  world  is  in  chaos,  and  so 
many  of  the  nations  seem  to  be  passing  through 
the  Garden  of  Sorrows.     Everywhere  prophets 


42       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

are  proclaiming  their  ability  to  lead  the  world 
out  of  its  darkness.  The  world  sadly  needs 
clear  heads,  and  reasoned  faith  in  its  leaders. 

Is  It  unfair  for  the  Church  to  require  such  san- 
ity and  wholesome  mentality  of  the  men  whom 
It  calls  into  service  as  teachers  and  leaders? 
When  so  much  importance  attaches  to  this  char- 
acteristic, when  the  peace  and  success  of  the 
church  is  determined  by  it,  and  the  happiness  and 
usefulness  of  the  worker  is  dependent  upon  it, 
reason  demands  that  the  church  examine  care- 
fully the  Intellectual  fitness  of  those  who  apply 
for  induction  into  its  official  leadership. 

The  ministry  was  not  established  to  give  cre- 
dentials to  every  man  who  thinks  himself  called 
to  deliver  a  message,  but  to  supply  for  the 
church  a  leadership  sound  minded,  godly  lived 
and  "thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good 
works." 

The  third  canon  to  be  observed  pertains  to 
the  spiritual  life — the  susceptibility  to  spiritual 
forces,  the  aptitudes  of  the  soul.  As  the  artist 
is  supposed  to  have  some  sense  of  form  and 
color,    and    the    poet    an    ear    for   words    and 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       43 

rhythm,  so  the  minister  is  presumed  to  possess  a 
spirit  that  reacts  to  spiritual  impulses  and  ideals. 
And  this  presumption  is  justified,  even  though  in 
some  particular  cases  it  may  not  seem  to  be 
founded  on  facts. 

The  minister  has  become  a  man  of  all  work — 
a  business  manager,  a  social  organizer,  a  director 
of  benevolent  activities,  a  functionary  of  diverse 
and  many  times  unrelated  causes,  but  these 
things  are  not  vital  to  his  work.  They  are  inter- 
esting and  valuable,  but  they  are  the  accidents 
of  his  occupation,  the  parasites  that  attach 
themselves  to  his  oifice  through  the  conditions 
of  the  times. 

His  one  supreme  business  is  to  minister  to  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  race,  to  keep  the  soul  of  man 
"on  top";  and  all  other  things  must  be  subjected 
to  this  objective. 

But  he  can  do  this  only  as  his  own  soul  main- 
tains its  supremacy  over  the  temporal  and  ma- 
terial. He  must  think  in  the  realm  of  the  spirit, 
speak  the  language  of  the  spirit,  and  act  in  har- 
mony with  spiritual  motives  and  ideals.  This 
means  in  the  last  analysis  to  make  spirituality  as 


44       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

much  as  possible  "a  fixed  mental  and  moral 
habit." 

Of  course  this  is  a  difficult  task,  and  such  an 
attitude  of  mind  and  heart  can  be  attained  and 
maintained  only  through  patient  cultivation  and 
experimentation.  The  initial  impulse  comes 
through  the  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the 
heart,  but  the  continuance  of  that  impulse,  the 
changing  of  the  impulse  to  a  habit,  depends 
largely  upon  the  man  himself.  It  is  for  him  to 
spiritualize  his  thinking,  feeling,  and  acting  until 
such  condition  becomes  the  norm  of  his  life  and 
he  "walks  in  the  Spirit." 

This  is  the  reason  back  of  Paul's  words  to  the 
Philippians :  "Whatsoever  things  are  true,  what- 
soever things  are  honorable,  whatsoever  things 
are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever 
things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good 
report:  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any 
praise  think  on  these  things."  Spiritual  powers 
and  attainments  are  achieved  only  through  care- 
ful attention  to  the  things  through  which  God 
reveals  himself  to  us,  and  devotion  to  the  realm 
of  the  spirit. 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK      45 

But  no  man  will  give  habitual  attention  to  the 
media  of  fellowship  with  the  Eternal,  and  cer- 
tainly he  will  find  no  joy  in  such  attention,  if  he 
has  not  a  certain  aptitude  for  spiritual  things,  a 
receptivity  to  spiritual  truth  and  ideals. 

All  men  possess  a  little  of  this  aptitude,  but 
the  minister  must  possess  it  in  large  measure,  or 
the  formulas  of  the  church  become  dry  and 
meaningless;  the  tasks  of  the  ministry,  so  often 
small  in  themselves,  become  drudgery;  and  the 
hopes  of  Christian  faith  lose  their  power  to  in- 
spire and  compel  zeal  and  devotion. 

God  may  use,  sometimes,  an  unspirltual  man 
to  bring  spiritual  things  to  pass,  but  that  is  not 
his  usual  way  of  working.  God  follows  the  gen- 
eral law  of  his  universe.  Like  begets  like. 
Every  seed  after  its  kind.  This  Is  the  law  of 
the  spiritual  world  just  as  truly  as  it  is  the  law 
of  the  physical  life. 

Young  men  looking  forward  to  the  ministry, 
and  those  seeking  to  influence  our  youth  for  this 
profession,  might  well  ponder  this  canon  of  spir- 
ituality. It  may  serve  as  the  determining  factor 
in   influencing  the   choice,    and   either   save   the 


46       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

life  from  disappointment  or  lead  to  joyous 
service, 

God  wants  his  people  to  be  happy  and  to  find 
satisfaction  in  the  tasks  of  life.  Only  the  joyous 
worker  attains  the  highest  usefulness,  and  the 
joyous  worker  is  the  man  whose  free  spirit  and 
service  moves  along  the  line  of  God  given  apti- 
tudes and  powers. 

Dr.  Elijah  Brown  of  Ram's  Horn  fame  put 
the  matter  in  Ram's  Horn  style  when  he  said: 

"Unless  a  man's  born  with  preach  in  him  I 
don't  believe  he  can  ever  get  it  there.  I  hold 
these  truths  to  be  self-evident.  That  God  settles 
some  things  for  eternity  before  the  foundations 
of  the  world  were  laid,  and  one  of  them  is  that 
a  man  with  no  music  in  his  soul  can  never  be- 
come a  Paderewski,  and  another  is  that  the 
preacher  must  be  born  with  his  preach  in  him  or 
no  theological  institution  can  ever  put  it  there." 

It  must  ever  be  true  that  preachers  are  born 
of  God,  and  not  made  by  man.  God  must  en- 
dow them  with  the  powers  and  capacities  of 
body,  mind,  and  soul  that  destines  them  for  his 
special  service,     Man's  task  Is  to  discover  these 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       47 

potential  personalities,  aid  them  to  find  them- 
selves, and  then  encourage  and  direct  them  in 
training  for  the  service  to  which  they  are 
called. 


Refuse  profane  and  old  wives  fables.  And  exer- 
cise thyself  unto  godliness.  Neglect  not  the  good 
gift  that  is  in  thee. — 1  Tim.  4:7,  14. 


CRAPTER  V 

THE   TRAINING   OF   THE   MINISTRY 

John  Harvard  endowed  Harvard  University, 
the  first  college  in  America,  because  he  feared 
that  "an  illiterate  ministry  to  the  churches  might 
arise  when  our  present  ministers  shall  lie  in  the 
dust."  That  fear  has  been  In  the  minds  of  the 
leaders  of  the  church  for  generations  and  out 
of  it  has  come  many  of  those  self-sacrificing  gifts 
that  established  most  of  our  academies  and  col- 
leges and  all  of  our  seminaries. 

Unfortunately,  all  members  of  the  churches 
have  not  seen  with  the  clear-eyed  vision  of  these 
founders  of  our  schools.  Many  of  the  fathers 
believed  that  if  God  called  a  man  to  preach  it 
was  his  duty  to  preach,  Irrespective  of  training 
or  educational  equipment.  In  fact  some  of  them 
thought  that  education  was  a  hindrance,  that  It 
fettered  the  free  movement  of  the  Spirit.  Prac- 
tically applied,  this  sentiment  resulted  in  forcing 

48 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       49 

into  the  ministry  many  ignorant  and  uncouth 
men,  men  whose  ignorance  was  so  palpable  and 
whose  messages  and  manners  were  so  grotesque 
that  their  audiences  were  repelled  rather  than 
attracted. 

God  has  used  most  marvellously  some  men 
who  have  not  been  trained  in  the  schools.  We 
have  abundant  reason  to  venerate  such  names 
as  John  Bunyan,  Andrew  Fuller  and  Dwight  L. 
Moody — men  who  by  their  piety,  energy,  com- 
mon sense  and  eloquence,  have  wrought  splen- 
didly for  the  truth.  But  the  usefulness  of  these 
remarkable  men  does  not  argue  against  the  need  of 
other  men  obtaining  a  thorough  scholastic  prepara- 
tion. Such  men  succeeded  in  spite  of  their  handi- 
caps of  poor  preparation,  not  because  of  them. 

We  must  also  recognize  the  fact  that  the  pro- 
portion of  such  leadership  has  been  small,  and 
the  strength  of  the  church  has  been  conserved 
and  increased  largely  by  the  trained  leadership 
of  such  educated  men  as  Paul  and  Augustine, 
Chrysostom  and  John  Wickliffe,  John  Huss  and 
Calvin,  Edwards,  and  Beecher  and  Brooks  and 
Broadus. 


50      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

Even  the  Apostolic  Band,  so  often  referred  to 
as  consisting  of  "unlearned  and  ignorant  men," 
was  highly  trained,  for  its  members  had  three 
years  of  training  under  the  greatest  teacher  the 
world  has  ever  seen.  And  after  that  marvelous 
intellectual  and  spiritual  privilege,  they  were  not 
permitted  to  enter  on  their  work  until  they  had 
received  the  special  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  desirability  of  thorough  training  for  the 
men  who  enter  the  ministry  hardly  seems  debat- 
able, and  yet,  the  decline  in  the  number  of  stu- 
dents in  the  standard  seminaries,  the  multiplica- 
tion of  training  schools  offering  short  cut  courses, 
and  the  large  numbers  of  unschooled  men  pre- 
senting themselves  for  ordination  have  forced  the 
question  to  the  front. 

Is  it  wise  or  necessary  to  train  thoroughly  can- 
didates for  the  ministry?  Must  the  young  man 
undergo  a  long  period  of  discipline  and  study? 
Will  not  the  God  who  calls  him  give  him  the 
understanding  and  the  power  to  deliver  the 
message? 

The  temptation  to  make  it  easy  for  the  young 
men  to  enter  the  work  is  evident.     Some  high 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       51 

class  institutions  have  felt  the  pull  of  this  senti- 
ment and  lowered  their  requirements  or  estab- 
lished departments  that  meet  the  needs  of  students 
without  classical  culture. 

The  men  themselves  naturally  desire  to  enter 
upon  their  careers  as  soon  as  possible,  and  minis- 
terial students  are  not  all  immune  to  the  germ  of 
indolence. 

The  average  ministerial  student  is  earnest  and 
devoted,  but  the  short  course,  the  easy  course,  has 
many  attractions,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  numbers 
pursuing  their  studies  at  short  course  institutions 
or  selecting  easy  subjects  In  those  institutions 
where  they  have  large  opportunities  for  elective 
topics.  The  elective  system  has  done  much  to 
emancipate  the  individual,  to  develop  genius  and 
talent,  and  to  give  color  and  interest  to  modern 
education,  but  it  has  its  weaknesses,  and  its  privi- 
leges are  often  abused.  Shortcomings  in  educa- 
tional equipment  may  be  overcome  by  diligence, 
but  they  take  heavy  toll  from  the  minister's  nerve 
power. 

Greek  and  Hebrew  may  not  be  necessary  from 
our  modern  viewpoint,  but  it  does  seem  fitting 


52      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

that  the  man  who  is  to  deliver  the  message  of  the 
gospel  should  have  at  least  a  working  knowledge 
of  the  wonderful  language  in  which  that  gospel 
was  given  to  the  world.  The  man  unacquainted 
with  Greek  is  shut  out  from  the  beauties  and  spir- 
itual suggestions  conveyed  only  through  that 
matchless  language.  Such  a  man  can  never  be  an 
independent  investigator  of  the  truth,  for  he  must 
ever  be  subservient  to  the  judgment  and  scholar- 
ship of  other  men. 

Moreover,  the  minister  needs  the  intellectual 
training  that  come  from  stiff  courses  of  study, 
especially  in  the  realm  of  language.  He  needs 
an  education  that  will  give  a  certain  hardness  to 
his  intellectual  and  moral  fibre;  a  power  to  face 
hard  questions,  to  think  them  through  to  satisfy- 
ing conclusions  both  for  himself  and  the  cultured 
men  and  women  of  his  congregation. 

Other  professions  are  steadily  increasing  their 
educational  demands  upon  their  members,  and  the 
ministry  cannot  afford  to  fall  behind  in  the  char- 
acter and  equipment  of  its  members. 

Remembering  the  exacting  conditions  of  our 
times,    the   many   problems   that   demand   wide 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       53 

observation,  breadth  of  knowledge  and  culture, 
and  clear,  accurate  thinking;  remembering  the 
increase  of  general  education  whereby  college- 
bred  men  and  women  are  found  in  every  congre- 
gation; remembering  the  glorious  greatness  of  the 
gospel  message,  we  can  hardly  over-emphasize 
the  need  of  adequate  preparation  for  the  men 
who  are  to  become  "stewards  of  the  word  of 
God." 

It  is  manifest  that  no  man  with  a  just  concep- 
tion of  the  ministerial  office  would  desire  to  take 
upon  himself  the  responsibilities  and  privileges  of 
the  profession  without  obtaining  the  best  training 
possible  for  him  under  the  circumstances  of  his 
lot.  The  work  is  too  vital,  too  holy,  too  far- 
reaching  in  its  effects,  too  Christ-like,  for  any 
human  being  to  enter  into  it  thoughtlessly  or  to 
give  to  it  anything  less  than  the  best  of  himself, 
the  highest  powers  of  his  body,  mind,  and  spirit. 

The  ideal  preparation  is  undoubtedly  a  full 
college  and  seminary  course,  including  at  least  one 
of  the  languages  in  which  the  scriptures  were 
written. 

Some  years  ago  in  discussing  the  "Preparation 


54      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

for  the  Ministry,"  President  Alvah  Hovey  of 
Newton  Theological  Institution  affirmed:  "Those 
who  have  thoroughly  studied  the  Word  of  God 
and  the  history  of  his  people ;  who  have  exercised 
their  mental  faculties  and  learned  how  to  lead 
other  minds  by  a  straight  line  into  the  very  center 
and  heart  of  religious  truth;  who  have  endured 
the  rigors  of  an  intellectual  and  moral  probation 
before  taking  the  full  responsibility  of  'stewards 
of  the  mysteries  of  God';  those,  in  a  word,  who, 
at  the  Master's  call,  have  deliberately  prepared 
themselves  in  young  manhood  for  the  holy  office 
of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  have  then  gone 
forth  to  spend  the  best  of  their  days  In  that  serv- 
ice,— have  labored  with  a  success  In  proportion 
to  their  fitness  to  do  the  work  of  their  calling, 
and  have  achieved  results  more  desirable  and 
permanent  than  have  others  of  equal  native  abil- 
ity and  equal  devotion  to  the  cause." 

This  statement  has  been  confirmed  recently  in 
a  remarkable  way  by  the  investigations  of  the 
Committee  on  Denominational  Schools  appointed 
by  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention.  The  report 
of  that  committee  shows  that  "combining  all  the 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       55 

records  obtained  (405),  the  graduates  of  1901- 
1905  and  of  1911-1915  (two  groups  whose  effi- 
ciency was  investigated  covering  the  period  1916- 
1920),  and  comparing  this  record  with  that  of 
the  675  not  seminary-trained  men  in  the  states 
adjacent  to  the  seminaries,  for  that  same  period, 
1 91 6-1920,  it  was  found  that  seminary-trained 
men  led  their  churches  to  give  for  denominational 
benevolences  an  average  of  over  four  and  one- 
half  times  as  much  money,  secured  two  and  one- 
half  times  as  many  baptisms,  and  twice  as  many 
accessions  by  letter  and  Christian  experience. 
These  figures  include  among  men  not  seminary- 
trained,  many  of  college  and  partial  seminary 
training.  Incomplete  as  these  returns  are,  they 
are  dependable  and  strongly  argue  for  full  semi- 
nary preparation." 

The  charge  has  been  made  recently  that  the  cur- 
ricula of  the  seminaries  is  archaic,  that  it  bears 
no  relation  to  modern  life,  that  it  emphasizes  dead 
languages  to  the  exclusion  of  living  subjects,  that 
it  does  not  prepare  men  to  meet  the  conditions 
that  prevail  in  the  world  in  which  they  live. 
As  a  rule,  such  charges  arise  out  of  ignorance 


56      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

concerning  modern  ministerial  training.  Prac- 
tically all  of  the  seminaries  give  wide  latitude  in 
the  matter  of  selective  courses,  and  many  of  them 
have  working  agreements  with  universities  where- 
by the  courses  of  the  university  become  available 
for  the  seminary  student.  Twenty  years  ago  most 
of  the  institutions  were  under  the  old  system  that 
recognized  five  general  departments:  Old  Testa- 
ment, New  Testament,  Theology,  Church  His- 
tory, and  Homiletics.  The  school  of  to-day  has 
these  departments,  but  It  also  has  either  other 
departments  or  includes  under  the  old  classifica- 
tion subjects  that  were  undreamed  of  a  generation 
since.  One  well  known  institution  offers  such 
courses  as  "The  Theology  of  the  Poets,"  "Ro- 
manism and  Modernism,"  "The  Church  and 
Labor,"  "The  Rural  Church  and  the  Commu- 
nity," "The  Family  and  Child  Welfare,"  "The 
Church  and  Internationalism,"  "Church  Music," 
"The  Principles  of  Education,"  "The  Theory  of 
Education." 

Certainly  nothing  could  be  more  modern  or 
practical  than  such  courses  in  sociology  and  relig- 
ious education. 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       57 

Moreover,  the  ability  of  the  schools  to  develop 
effective  workers  seems  to  be  augmenting.  The 
report  of  the  Committee  already  referred  to  has 
this  significant  statement;  "The  graduates  of 
1911-1915  led  their  churches  during  the  period 
19 1 6-1 920  to  give  more  to  denominational  benev- 
olence and  secured  as  many  baptisms,  and  more 
other  accessions  to  the  churches  by  letter  and 
experience  for  the  same  period,  19 16-1920,  than 
seminary  graduates  ten  years  earlier.  This  fact 
reveals  increasing  and  not  decreasing  seminary 
efficiency." 

It  Is  Inevitable  that  some  worthy  men  will  not 
be  able  to  pursue  full  college  and  seminary 
courses.  They  may  be  called  to  the  ministry  too 
late  in  life,  or  when  called  they  may  have  already 
assumed  the  responsibilities  of  family  support. 
But  even  these  men  should  aim  for  the  best  equip- 
ment possible,  and  for  them  the  training  school 
or  special  courses  at  the  standard  institution  are 
available. 

Some  denominational  bodies  are  beginning  to 
legislate  concerning  the  training  of  the  ministry, 
and  wisely  establishing  standards  of  education  as 


58       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

prerequisite  to  ordination.  Such  legislation  Is  not 
for  the  purpose  of  keeping  men  out  of  the  minis- 
try, but  to  encourage  and  Inspire  men  to  enter  It; 
to  set  Ideals  for  candidates  to  surpass;  to  estab- 
lish standards  that  will  cause  the  world  to  respect 
and  honor  the  profession;  to  raise  the  leadership 
of  the  church  to  the  level  where  its  primacy  will 
be  universally  recognized;  and  above  all,  to  in- 
crease Its  efficiency  that  the  high  purpose  of  the 
Great  Head  of  the  Church  may  be  quickly 
achieved. 

The  proposal  to  raise  standards  of  require- 
ments, and  to  demand  long  periods  of  educational 
preparation  becomes  exceedingly  serious  In  view 
of  the  steadily  mounting  cost  of  education  and  the 
fact  that  the  ministry  is  recruited  largely  from 
families  of  limited  financial  resources. 

If  present  economic  conditions  continue  very 
long,  or  there  should  be  any  marked  increase  in 
the  number  of  students,  it  Is  evident  that  minis- 
terial education  societies  and  institutions  engaged 
in  training  the  clergy  would  need  to  enlarge  their 
resources  available  for  scholarship  aid. 

Some  excellent  men  criticise  this  policy  of  giv- 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       59 

ing  special  financial  aid  to  ministerial  students, 
and  contend  that  they  should  be  treated  exactly  as 
other  professional  students.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  the  church  calls  such  men  to 
a  special  and  technical  form  of  service;  a  service 
of  life-long  self-sacrifice  In  its  behalf;  and  a  serv- 
ice in  which  they  cannot  hope  to  obtain,  no  matter 
how  diligent  or  faithful  or  brilliant,  the  material 
rewards  that  come  to  the  lawyer  or  physician  or 
engineer.  Moreover,  if  these  students  should 
borrow  funds  to  obtain  this  training,  the  meagre 
stipends  of  the  average  church  would  not  permit 
them  to  pay  their  debts. 

Nobody  considers  the  boys  attending  public 
school  or  the  young  men  in  college  as  subjects  of 
charity,  and  yet  none  of  them  make  adequate 
financial  return  for  the  benefits  received.  The 
public  contributes  to  their  support  and  training 
for  citizenship,  and  expects  Its  payment  in  later 
life  values.  And  no  more  Is  It  charity  for  the 
young  men  preparing  for  the  ministry  to  receive 
aid.  The  church  contributes  to  their  training,  but 
it  expects  the  laboratory  of  the  schools  to  add 
elements  of  value  to  their  lives.    The  church  an- 


60       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

ticipates  heavy  Interest  returns  from  Its  Invest- 
ment. 

It  Is  not  for  the  best  Interests  of  either  the  min- 
istry or  the  church  to  maintain  such  conditions 
that  the  chosen  leaders  of  God's  holy  work  should 
enter  upon  their  careers  harassed  with  visions  of 
debts  that  they  cannot  pay,  or  with  lowered  nerv- 
ous vitality  consequent  upon  overstrain  in  sup- 
porting themselves,  entirely,  during  the  period  of 
education. 

Ministers  are  the  officers  of  the  church  army. 
As  the  nation  deems  it  wise  to  support  and  direct 
the  training  of  the  officers  of  Its  army  and  navy, 
so  the  church  of  Christ  calling  its  young  men  and 
women  to  Its  special  service,  and  establishing  for 
them  high  standards  of  discipline  and  culture,  can 
do  no  less  than  aid  them  In  meeting  its  require- 
ments. 


Go  ye  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all  the 
nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name  of  the  Father 
and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit:  teaching 
them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  commanded 
you.— A/a«.  28:19-20. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  MINISTRY 

From  the  business  standpoint,  the  church  is 
probably  the  greatest  industry  ever  developed  by 
mortal  man.  There  is  more  capital  Invested  in  it, 
more  workers  engaged  in  advancing  its  interests, 
and  its  concerns  are  more  widespread  than  any 
other  enterprise  that  men  have  undertaken.  Its 
achievements  have  been  so  numerous  and  varied 
that  we  are  confronted  everywhere  by  its  benefits; 
and  the  unprejudiced  observer  soon  comes  to  feel 
that  practically  everything  essential  to  happiness 
in  modern  civilzatlon  owes  its  debt  to  the  church 
of  Christ. 

This  great,  going  business,  unctioning  in  so 
many  ways,  in  so  many  parts  of  the  world,  began 
in  weakness  nineteen  hundred  years  ago,  and  has 
come  to  its  present  status  only  through  self-sacri- 
ficing service  upon  the  part  of  its  adherents.    The 

61 


62      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

church  has  been  conceived  of,  sometimes,  as  a  field 
for  service,  but  it  is  rather  a  force  for  service,  an 
army  marshaled  to  succor  a  world  in  need. 

As  the  leaders  of  this  force,  the  ministers  have 
always  borne  burdens,  assumed  grave  responsibil- 
ities, and  challenged  opportunities.  But  no  gen- 
eration of  the  past  has  offered  so  many  open 
doors  to  the  consecrated  clergyman,  or  so  sorely 
needed  his  ministration  as  the  present  age. 

The  old  opportunities  for  the  demonstration  of 
the  power  of  ministerial  leadership  are  still  with 
us.  The  rural  communities  with  their  decaying 
churches;  the  city  with  its  crowding  populations; 
the  immigrant  with  his  strange  tongue  and  alien 
ideal;  the  child  problem;  and  the  labor  problem; 
and  the  divorce  problem ;  and  a  dozen  other  such 
questions  of  long  standing  still  send  out  their 
ringing  challenge  to  the  church  and  its  leaders. 

But  the  world  has  been  passing  through  a 
strange  and  terrible  experience  these  last  few 
years;  the  fountains  of  life  have  been  broken  up, 
the  bulwarks  of  society  have  been  overthrown, 
and  cruelty  and  lust  and  hate  have  overwhelmed 
great  masses  of  the  race.     The  world  has  been 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       63 

surprised  in  its  self-confidence,  foolish  pride,  and 
undue  elation  over  its  progress  in  material  things. 
The  world  boasted  of  its  conquests  and  culture, 
and  in  that  very  moment,  the  leaders  of  its  intel- 
lectual life,  the    organizers    of  its   industry,  the 
captains  of  its  scientific  adventures  were  seized 
with  madness,  and  plunged  it  into  a  maelstrom  of 
hate  and  destruction.     Out  of  the  terrors  of  the 
world  war  the  nations  have  emerged  with  minds 
bewildered  by  conflict,  hearts  torn  with  anguish, 
and  hands  blindly  reaching  forth  after  guidance. 
New  tasks  face  the  minister,  for  he  must  be  the 
interpreter  of  these  experiences  to  men.     As  ex- 
President  Wilson  said  in  one  of  his  great  ad- 
dresses, "The  business  of  the  Christian  church,  of 
the  Christian  minister,  is  to  show  the  spiritual 
relations   of  men  to   the   great  world   process, 
whether  they  be    physical  or    spiritual.     It    is 
nothing  less  than  to  show  the  plan  of  life  and 
man's  relation  to  that  plan." 

In  this  Interpretation  of  the  plan  of  the  ages 
and  the  mediation  between  the  world  and  its 
bewilderments,  between  men  and  their  woes,  the 
minister  has  a  veritable  sea  of  sorrows  to  assuage. 


64       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

America  has  not  really  tasted  the  bitter  cup  that 
has  been  pressed  to  the  lips  of  the  nations.  Her 
territory  has  not  been  ravaged,  her  homes  have 
not  been  destroyed,  her  sons  and  daughters  have 
not  been  slain  till  the  wombs  of  the  mothers  could 
not  supply  the  demand  for  sacrifices.  Europe, 
however,  knows  all  the  bitterness  of  these  sorrows 
as  she  contemplates  her  childless  homes,  her  count- 
less crosses  on  Flander's  Fields,  and  her  hosts  of 
maimed  and  blind  and  sick.  At  the  meeting  of 
the  National  Federation  of  Churches  in  Boston  in 
the  autumn  of  1920  the  Secretary  of  the  Feder- 
ation stated  that  "if  the  dead  of  France  could  be 
marshaled  twenty  abreast  it  would  take  them 
eleven  days,  marching  day  and  night,  to  pass  a 
given  point;  if  to  the  dead  of  France  could  be 
added  the  dead  of  the  other  nations,  it  would 
require  three  months  to  pass;  if  to  this  mighty 
procession  could  be  added  the  maimed  and  blind 
and  those  incapacitated  for  life's  work,  the 
line  would  be  marching  from  now  (from  the 
time  of  the  meeting)  till  the  roses  bloom  in  the 
spring." 

The  world  is  indeed  treading  the  winepress  of 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       65 

sorrow  and  its  only  hope,  the  only  light  that  shines 
in  its  dark  night,  is  the  light  that  streams  from 
the  face  of  the  "Man  of  Sorrows,"  the  "Divine 
Son." 

But  the  world  needs  far  more  than  this  assuage- 
ment of  its  griefs.  There  must  be  a  moral  and 
spiritual  reconstruction  of  both  the  foundations 
and  the  structure  of  human  society. 

The  world  war  as  fought  by  America  and  her 
allies  was  entered  into  with  splendid  idealism; 
but  warfare  is  always  subversive  to  high  moral 
and  religious  ideals.  Inevitably  the  safeguards  of 
society  have  been  broken  down,  and  established 
conventionalities  overthrown.  Multitudes  seem 
to  have  lost  their  convictions  of  honor,  and  cher- 
ished principles  have  been  violated  without  com- 
punction. The  world  has  gone  mad  over  the 
things  of  physical  sense,  and  does  not  hesitate  to 
adopt  any  means  in  order  to  obtain  its  satisfac- 
tions. Human  life  is  held  cheaply,  and  lawless- 
ness Is  continually  bursting  through  the  crusts  of 
well-ordered  life. 

The  only  hope  of  the  world  is  to  rebuild  its 
life  by  recalling  men  to  the  consciousness  of  the 


66       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

reality  of  the  spiritual;  by  convincing  them  that 
men  do  not  live  by  bread  alone;  by  moralizing  the 
material  forces  that  are  subject  to  man. 

It  is  strangely  significant,  perhaps  we  should 
say  providential,  that  at  this  time  we  are  celebrat- 
ing the  three-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth. 

Bradford  and  Brewster  and  their  fellow-work- 
ers were  few  in  number,  but  they  were  mighty  in 
spirit,  and  upon  their  high  idealism  and  lofty 
principles  our  nation  has  builded  its  structure  of 
a  free  government  freely  supported,  by  a  liberty- 
loving  and  religious-minded  people.  We  should 
strive  to-day  for  a  rebirth  of  the  Pilgrim  ideal, 
not  only  in  America,  but  in  the  nations  of  the 
earth. 

Perhaps  the  element  of  that  ideal  most  needed 
in  the  present  hour  is  its  religious  reverence  and 
spirit. 

President  Harding  said  in  a  recent  address  in 
Washington : 

"In  spite  of  our  complete  divorcement  of 
Church  and  State,  quite  In  harmony  with  our 
religious  freedom,  there  is  an  important  relation- 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       67 

ship  betwe;en  Church  and  Nation,  because  no 
nation  can  prosper,  no  nation  can  survive  if  it 
ever  forgets  Almighty  God.  I  have  believed  that 
religious  reverence  has  played  a  very  influential 
and  helpful  part  in  the  matchless  American 
achievement,  and  I  wish  it  ever  to  abide.  If  I 
were  to  utter  a  prayer  for  the  republic  tonight,  it 
would  be  to  reconsecrate  us  in  religious  devotion 
and  make  us  abidingly  a  God-fearing,  God-loving 
people." 

Viewing  conditions  from  the  business  stand- 
point, Mr.  Babson  asserts :  "The  need  of  the  hour 
is  more  religion.  More  religion  is  needed  every- 
where, from  the  halls  of  Congress  at  Washington 
to  the  factories,  the  mines,  the  fields  and  the 
forests.  It  is  one  thing  to  talk,  about  plans  or 
policies,  but  a  plan  or  policy  without  a  religious 
motive  is  like  a  watch  without  a  spring  or  a  body 
without  the  breath  of  life.  The  security  of  our 
investments  is  absolutely  dependent  upon  faith, 
the  righteousness  and  the  religion  of  our  people. 
I  have  stated  that  the  real  strength  of  our  invest- 
ments is  due,  not  to  the  distinguished  bankers  of 
America,  but  rather  to  the  poor  preachers.    I  now 


68       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

go  farther  than  that  and  say  that  the  development 
of  the  country  as  a  whole  is  due  to  this  something, 
this  indescribable  something,  this  combination  of 
faith,  thrift,  industry,  initiative,  integrity  and 
vision,  which  these  preachers  have  developed  in 
their  communities." 

Both  statesman  and  keen-minded  statistician 
have  analyzed  the  situation  with  exactness  and 
simplicity.  The  only  corrective  for  the  chaos, 
restlessness  and  laxity  of  the  present  is  more 
religion.  It  is  the  task  and  privilege  of  the  min- 
ister in  this  hour  of  the  world's  great  need  to  cast 
into  the  whirlpool  of  its  life  the  steadying 
element,  the  message  of  our  religious  faith.  He 
is  In  a  peculiar  manner  the  representative  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  forces  of  the  nation,  the 
regenerative  powers  of  society,  and  upon  him 
depends  to  a  large  extent  the  restoration  of  the 
world  to  sanity  and  healthful  Ideals. 

But  the  reconstruction  of  the  old  pillars  is  not 
the  only  need  of  the  world.  It  is  asking  and 
expecting  the  creation  of  new  temples  for  its  life 
and  faith. 

The  great  developments  of  the  past  century 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       69 

have  been  along  material  lines.  The  resources  of 
nature  have  been  exploited,  and  man's  conquests 
of  natural  forces  have  surpassed  the  wildest 
dreams  of  the  ancients.  Disciples  of  Neitsche  are 
now  asserting  that  the  cycle  of  progress  has  been 
completed  and  that  the  race  is  entering  the  path 
that  leads  downward. 

Competent  observers,  who  have  no  sympathy 
with  such  decadent  philosophy,  are  also  beginning 
to  question  concerning  the  future,  and  expressing 
doubts  that  man  can  progress  much  further  along 
material  lines. 

Whatever  the  future  may  contain  for  the  race, 
materially,  it  is  evident  that  just  now  we  need  a 
vast  increment  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  resources 
of  mankind.  For  several  generations  the  moral 
and  spiritual  development  of  the  world  has  not 
kept  pace  with  its  material  advances.  The  prob- 
lem is  to  develop  spiritual  powers  adequate  to 
control  and  direct  these  gigantic  forces  that  have 
been  called  into  action  by  the  discoveries  of 
science  and  the  unfolding  of  nature's  storehouses. 

This  is  undoubtedly  the  minister's  problem,  and 
there  are  indications  that  we  are  entering  upon 


70       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

the  pathway  that  leads  to  its  solution.  The  world 
is  growing  heartsick  and  weary.  It  is  awakening 
to  Its  need  of  God.  It  is  becoming  conscious  of 
its  sorrows,  conscious  of  Its  broken  idols  of  human 
culture  and  achievements,  conscious  of  its  own 
helplessness.  Voices  in  the  wilderness  arc  begin- 
ning to  cry  out,  "Give  us  back  our  God,"  "Lead 
us  into  the  presence  of  the  Holy  One,"  "Show  us 
the  fountain  of  living  waters." 

These  voices  In  the  night,  that  reveal  the  blind 
gropings  of  the  race,  are  heard  not  only  in  Amer- 
ica and  Europe,  but  also  In  other  continents, 
continents  that  we  call  pagan. 

The  groanlngs  of  the  race,  the  birth  pangs  of 
new  ideals  and  civilizations,  are  heard  In  China 
and  Japan,  in  India  and  Arabia,  in  Africa  and 
the  Islands  of  the  Sea.  Everywhere  a  new  day 
seems  to  be  dawning  on  the  race.  Shall  it  be  a 
day  dark  with  the  clouds  of  doubt  and  prejudice 
and  rivalry  and  hate,  or  a  day  bright  and  glorious 
because  the  "sun  of  righteousness"  arises  "with 
healing  in  Its  wings."  The  Christian  forces  of 
America,  under  the  leadership  of  the  ministry 
will  practically  determine  the  character  of  this 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       71 

new  age.  America  of  all  the  nations  has  the  men 
and  the  means,  the  reserves  that  are  able  to  con- 
trol conditions. 

The  signs  of  the  times  point  to  a  glorious  day- 
break, the  ushering  in  of  a  new  era  of  spiritual 
progress.  The  surprising  development  of  the 
nineteenth  century  along  material  lines  will  be 
matched  in  the  twentieth  by  the  nobler  conquests 
of  the  spirit  when  the  visions  of  prophets  and  the 
dreams  of  poets  shall  have  their  fruition. 

The  golden  age  of  the  minister  from  the  stand- 
point of  opportunity  is  in  the  present  generation. 
He  is  the  key  man  to  the  world's  future,  for  he 
must  unlock  the  treasure  house  of  the  spirit.  In 
his  hands  arc  the  issues  of  life  for  the  race. 
Never  before  has  he  had  such  opportunities  to 
lay  foundations  of  faith;  to  build  temples  of  wor- 
ship in  the  souls  of  men;  to  mediate  between  the 
human  spirit  and  the  eternal  God;  to  re-discover 
to  the  consciousness  of  the  race  the  eternal  verities 
of  the  Christian  religion. 

Like  his  Master  of  old,  the  minister  can  feel 
the  rising  power  of  his  divine  mission  and  exclaim : 
"He  has  annointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to 


72      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

the  poor;  he  has  sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to 
the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind. 
To  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised.  To 
proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 


Wherefore  my  brethren  beloved  and  longed  for, 
my  joy  and  crown,  so  stand  fast  in  the  Lord. — 
Phil.  4:1. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  ATTRACTIONS  OF  THE  MINISTRY 

There  are  some  obvious  attractions  to  the  min- 
istry, such  as  the  desirable  social  position  accorded 
the  minister,  the  opportunities  it  presents  for  ease 
and  culture,  and  the  command  of  one's  time  that 
it  affords.  These  things  do  not,  however,  appeal 
to  any  large  number  of  worthy  young  men. 

A  somewhat  larger  company  of  candidates  are 
attracted  by  the  approbation  of  society  that  the 
minister  is  supposed  to  receive,  or  by  the  leader- 
ship that  Is  accorded  him  in  certain  walks  of  life, 
or  by  the  prevalent  altruistic  emphasis  and  Its 
invocation  of  the  romantic  emotions  of  our  young 
people. 

Fundamentally,  the  attractive  appeals  to  enter 
upon  the  work  of  the  minister  and  to  persevere 
in  its  labors,  range  themselves  under  three  gen- 
eral heads — the  attraction  of  a  great  call,  the. 


73 


74       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

attraction  of  a  great  work,  and  the  attraction  of 
a  great  fellowship. 

The  attractive  power  of  the  ideal  call  to  the 
ministry  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  The  true 
minister  is  born  a  minister  just  as  the  musician 
is  born  a  musician  or  the  artist  is  born  an  artist. 
But  the  imperatives  that  bid  the  minister  express 
his  personality  by  becoming  a  minister  arc  unlike 
those  that  exercise  dominion  over  the  genius  of 
the  sculptor  or  the  painter  or  the  musician.  To 
the  instinctive  leading  of  those  forces  that  exercise 
empire  over  the  spirit  is  added  the  summons  of 
a  great  and  glorious  God  bidding  the  soul 
acknowledge  his  reign  and  assume  his  livery  of 
service. 

Somehow  in  that  call  there  is  an  authority,  a 
something  never  seen  on  land  or  sea,  that  grips 
the  soul,  and  from  which  it  can  never  quite 
escape. 

The  attraction  of  the  call  is,  however,  matched 
by  the  attraction  of  the  work.  The  work  of  the 
minister  may  be  defined  in  many  ways,  depending 
somewhat  upon  the  mental  attitude  and  spiritual 
experience  of  the  definer. 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       75 

Sometimes  men  look  at  the  work  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  narrow  ecclesiasticism,  and  it  is 
conceived,  as  the  gathering  of  a  congregation  and 
aligning  it  with  some  particular  denominational 
group,  or  the  building  of  a  church  edifice,  or  the 
preaching  of  a  few  sermons  and  administration 
of  the  sacraments,  or  the  management  of  worthy 
charities.  Sometimes  the  vocation  is  described  in 
terms  of  social  service,  such  as  "the  creation  of  a 
new  social  order,"  "the  establishment  of  universal 
brotherhood,"  or  "the  building  of  a  new  civil- 
ization." 

All  of  these  worthy  objectives  are  Involved  In 
the  clergy's  affairs,  but  it  Is  possible  to  have  a 
deeper  and  richer  conception  of  his  mission. 
From  God's  point  of  view — the  minister  is  his 
representative  among  men,  the  heralder  of  his 
message  of  grace  and  love.  As  Jesus  was  the 
"Word,"  the  expression  of  the  Father's  heart  and 
mind,  so  in  some  marvelous  way  the  minister  is 
the  "word"  of  his  Master,  the  Christ,  manifesting 
the  divine  thought  and  purpose.  Paul  suggested 
this  idea  when  he  wrote  of  himself  to  the  Phll- 
llpplans,  "To  me  to  live  is  Christ."     Earlier  in 


76      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

his  career  he  expressed  the  same  thought  to  the 
Galatians,  "I  live;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in 
me."  For  the  minister  to  live  among  men  is  for 
Christ  in  him  and  through  him  to  live  among  men, 
and  the  message  of  the  true  minister  is  the  mes- 
sage of  God.  He  may  sometimes  speak  without 
authority,  just  as  the  Apostle  Paul  sometimes 
spoke  without  divine  inspiration,  but  he  is  ever 
facing  the  fact  that  he  is  a  "consecrated  man," 
set  apart  for  holy  service  as  the  messenger  of  the 
Most  High. 

From  the  standpoint  of  man,  the  minister's 
mission  is  to  save  a  lost  and  ruined  world,  to  drive 
out  darkness  and  sin,  and  to  usher  in  the  light 
and  holiness  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  must 
aid  man  to  discover  God,  to  enter  into  the  spir- 
itual kingdom.  He  must  grip  their  souls  with 
the  imperatives  of  divine  love  and  righteousness, 
until,  yielding  to  his  persuasion,  they  enter  the 
aristocracy  of  faith,  and  Jesus  Christ  becomes  the 
arbiter  of  life. 

Of  course  this  is  a  tremendous  and  perplexing 
task,  and  seemingly  impossible  of  accomplishment. 
The  minister  could  not  fulfill  this  two-fold  mis- 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       77 

sion  if  he  were  dependent  simply  upon  his  own 
initiative  and  personality. 

But  in  the  very  difficulty  of  his  mission  there 
is  an  element  of  satisfaction  and  an  added  attrac- 
tion to  his  vocation.  Men  like  big  jobs.  There 
is  no  real  pleasure  in  doing  the  easy  thing.  The 
athlete  finds  relish  in  his  contest  only  as  he  faces 
an  opponent  worthy  of  his  powers.  Men,  virile 
men,  like  Theodore  Roosevelt,  find  their  highest 
enjoyment  in  doing  the  hard  thing,  and  the  harder, 
the  more  taxing  the  struggle,  the  greater  the  joy, 
both  in  contest  and  victory. 

And  that  joy,  the  joy  of  the  Strenuous,  the  joy 
of  burden  bearing,  of  carrying  forward  mighty 
enterprises,  belongs  to  the  minister  by  reason  of 
the  nature  of  his  mission. 

Moreover,  marvelous  as  it  seems,  the  minister's 
objective  is  not  altogether  in  the  realm  of  the 
impossible.  The  word  "impossible"  ought  never 
to  have  been  coined.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
an  impossibility.  What  we  call  "impossible"  to- 
day may  be  the  commonplace  of  to-morrow.  A 
generation  since,  the  world  said  it  was  impossible 
for  men  to  converse  with  their  fellow-men  across 


78      THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

this  continent,  or  to  fly  ten  thousand  feet  in  the 
air  in  machines  heavier  than  air,  or  to  cross  the 
Atlantic  in  a  submarine.  Such  things  were  con- 
sidered the  wild  fancies  of  the  romancer.  And 
yet  these  things,  and  even  more  marvelous  things, 
are  the  everyday  happenings  of  the  present. 

In  the  spiritual  realm  Jesus  ruled  out  the  idea 
of  the  "impossible"  when  he  said:  "With  God  all 
things  are  possible."  And  the  church  has  been 
making  through  the  centuries  the  seeming  "im- 
possible" the  rule  of  its  achievements.  What  a 
wild  dream  for  that  little  band  of  enthusiasts  to 
attempt  to  break  through  the  crusts  of  life  in  the 
Roman  world  and  enthrone  the  religion  of  the 
Nazarene !  What  effrontery  of  faith  for  that 
Insignificant  Baptist  Church  Association  at  Kit- 
tery,  England,  to  resolve  that  the  "time  had 
arrived  to  attempt  to  give  the  gospel  to  the  pagan 
world"! 

It  may  seem  to  the  world  an  Impossibility  for 
the  minister  to  overthrow  the  walls  of  modern 
Jerichos,  and  to  build  New  Jerusalems  of  right- 
eousness; to  accomplish  the  mighty  objectives  that 
the  race  and  the  Word  of  God  sets  for  him ;  but 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       79 

the  regnancy  of  faith  still  abides,  and  the  hard 
thing  becomes  the  joyous  venture  of  his  soul. 

The  attractions  of  the  call  and  the  work  of 
the  ministry  are  enhanced  by  the  attractions  of 
its  fellowships.  Men  can  be  faithful  to  princi- 
ples and  ideals  even  in  loneliness  and  isolation. 
Many  noble  saints  have  wasted  in  dungeons,  and 
multitudes  have  given  their  bodies  to  be  burned, 
out  of  loyalty  to  conscience  and  religious  senti- 
ment. 

But  even  for  the  strongest  and  most  independ- 
ent there  is  something  uplifting  in  the  fellow- 
ships of  life.  One  of  the  abiding  charms  of  the 
ministry  is  its  "sweet  and  noble  fellowships." 
This  fellowship  is  not  simply  of  the  minister's 
own  generation.  As  a  spiritual  relationship  it 
reaches  back  through  the  ages,  linking  the  present- 
day  minister  with  the  choice  souls  that  have 
labored  and  wrought  in  faith. 

The  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  sum- 
moned the  men  of  his  generation  to  courage  and 
consecration  by  picturing  their  spiritual  fellowship 
with  the  fathers  who  had  wrought  under  the  old 
dispensation,  and  above  all,  by  the  consciousness 


80       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

that  they  were  In  the  same  line  with  the  "author 
and  perfector  of  our  faith."  The  same  spiritual 
alliance  Is  the  inheritance  of  the  minister  to-day, 
and  it  is  a  glorious  company  of  prophets  and 
apostles  and  holy  men  of  which  the  minister  is  a 
member.  Paul,  the  matchless;  Chrysostom,  the 
golden-mouthed;  Athanasius,  the  defender  of  the 
faith;  Hubmaler,  the  protestant;  Wickllffe,  the 
morning  star  of  the  reformation;  John  Robinson, 
the  separatist;  Carey,  the  Inspirer  of  modern 
missions;  Gordon,  the  mystic;  Lorlmer,  the  plat- 
form prince;  and  a  host  of  others  whose  names 
stand  for  piety,  principle,  and  Christly  service, 
are  in  the  mighty  "cloud  of  witnesses,"  this  spir- 
itual ancestry.  The  minister  of  to-day  is  one  with 
these,  in  the  temper  of  his  life,  the  motives  of 
his  soul,  the  objectives  of  his  labor,  and  the  ends 
of  his  destiny.  The  memory  of  that  fellowship 
thrills  his  heart,  lightens  his  burdens  and  encour- 
ages his  soul  in  the  dark  hour  when  the  candle  of 
hope  burns  dimly.  He  Is  of  that  company  of  the 
immortals  of  whom  the  Scripture  asserts  the 
"world  was  not  worthy." 

The  minister  may  have  his  heavy  burdens,  his 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       81 

almost  overpowering  tasks,  but  as  in  the  audacity 
and  confidence  of  faith  he  attempts  to  fulfill  his 
commission,  he  hears  the  voice  of  his  Captain, — 
"Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  age." 


Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant:  thou  hast 
been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  set  thee  over 
many  things;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  lord. — 
Matt.  25:21. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  REWARDS  OF  THE  MINISTRY 

We  are  told  sometimes  that  the  minister  should 
not  think  of  a  reward,  that  it  is  not  in  accord  with 
the  dignity  or  idealism  of  the  sacred  office.  His 
thought  should  be  of  duty,  of  moral  obligation,  of 
divine  commands  and  human  needs  rather  than 
compensations  or  personal  benefits.  But  there  is 
no  adequate  reason  for  such  assertions.  The  min- 
ister is  of  like  passions  as  other  men,  and  very 
few  can  be  held  long  to  sacrifices  and  labors  by 
abstruse  idealism  or  abstract  principles  of  right- 
eous conduct  Personality  cries  out  for  incarna- 
tions. Absolute  ethics  must  have  embodiments 
and  rest  upon  sentiments,  if  its  impositions 
are  to  have  response  in  the  human  heart,  and 
evoke  the  homage  of  obedience.  The  "oughts" 
of  life  need  the  persuasions  of  faith  and  feeling. 

The  scriptures  recognize  this  very  clearly,  and 
82 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       83 

their  greatest  teachings  are  the  teachings  that 
come  through  the  embodiments  of  principles  in 
the  lives  of  the  heroes ;  the  prophets  and  wise  men 
and  apostles;  and  above  all  in  the  life  of  the 
Divine  Master.  And  these  great  characters,  illus- 
trating the  marvelous  truths  that  God  desired  to 
teach  the  race,  were  not  insensible  to  the  prospec- 
tive rewards  of  their  faithfulness.  The  writer  of 
Hebrews  tells  us  that  Moses  "had  respect  unto 
the  recompense  of  the;  reward";  and  the  implica- 
tion is  that  Abraham  and  Jacob,  Joseph  and 
David,  and  the  other  worthies  mentioned  in  the 
same  chapter  shared  in  the  expectation  of  Moses 
and  were  inspired  to  labor  and  wait  for  the  prom- 
ised indemnity. 

In  his  teaching  Jesus  referred  to  the  matter 
again  and  again,  making  prospective  rewards  the 
incentive  to  faithfulness  and  zeal.  The  anticipa- 
tion of  reward  is  fundamental  in  such  parables  as 
the  talents  and  the  pounds,  while  it  is  the  essential 
doctrine  in  the  interpretation  of  our  Lord's  mar- 
velous picturing  of  the  final  judgment  as  recorded 
in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew. 

Jesus  himself  did  not  hesitate  to  claim  reward 


84       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

for  his  faithful  performance  of  the  Father's  will, 
and  in  his  prayer  for  his  disciples,  found  in  the 
seventeenth  of  John,  petitioned  the  Father:  "I 
glorified  thee  on  earth,  having  accomplished  the 
work  which  thou  hast  given  me  to  do.  And  now, 
Father,  glorify  thou  me  (reward  me)  with  thine 
own  self  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee 
before  the  world  was." 

The  young  man  looking  forward  to  the  min- 
istry, to  the  surrender  of  his  life  to  self-denying 
and  arduous  labors,  has  the  right  to  ask:  "What 
will  be  the  rewards  of  such  a  life?"  "Is  there 
anything  that  can  justify  me  in  investing  my  youth, 
my  manhood,  my  talent,  my  life,  in  this  occupa- 
tion?" "Will  the  investment  pay  valuable  divi- 
dends?" Livingston  asked  it  as  he  buried  himself 
in  the  heart  of  Africa.  Paton  asked  it  as  he  con- 
demned himself  to  the  isolation  of  the  islands  of 
the  sea.  Ashmore  asked  it  as  he  gave  his  states- 
manlike abilities  to  the  uplift  of  China.  Every 
man  who  enters  this  service,  at  home  or  abroad, 
whether  his  talents  fit  him  for  a  place  of  leader- 
ship in  the  great  swirling  currents  of  the  world's 
life,  or  for  the  quiet  pursuits  of  the  village  pastor- 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       85 

ate,  has  the  right,  and  ought,  to  ask  concerning 
the  adequacy  of  the  reward. 

Some  of  the  compensations  are  patent  even  to 
the  unbelieving,  but  the  richest  and  best  are  in 
those  invisible,  intangible  things  that  are  the  most 
precious  possessions  of  the  human  heart.  The 
assets  of  the  kingdom  of  God  that  become  the 
holdings  of  the  minister  are  not  all  visible  to  the 
unregenerate. 

Some  of  these  rewards  become  available  almost 
coincident  with  the  determination  to  devote  the 
life  to  divine  service,  while  others  await  the  devel- 
oping experience  of  the  minister,  or  the  culmina- 
tion of  divine  providence  in  the  final  judgment. 

Some  one  has  said  that  the  supreme  reward 
that  can  come  to  a  righteous  life  is  to  see  itself 
reproduced  in  some  other  life.  The  joy  of  this 
reproduction  is  seen  in  both  the  natural  and  the 
spiritual  realms.  The  mother  finds  abiding  happi- 
ness in  the  reproducing  of  herself  in  the  life  of 
her  child.  The  true  teacher  has  satisfaction  in 
the  begetting  of  knowledge  and  a  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge in  the  mind  of  his  pupil,  and,  the  Christian 
minister  is  gladdened  as  he  sees  faith  blossoming 


86       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

in  the  hearts  of  those  to  whom  he  proclaims  the 
word,  and  a  transfiguring  power  assuming  reg- 
nancy  in  their  lives.  The  Scriptures  suggest,  fre- 
quently, that  this  experience  Is  a  reward  of  faith- 
ful service.  The  prophet  Isaiah  pictured  the 
suffering  Messiah  as  requited  in  this  manner  for 
his  sufferings:  "He  shall  see  his  seed.  He  shall 
see  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied." 

The  disciples  of  Jesus  were  "slow  of  heart  to 
believe,"  and  were  ofttlmes  disappointing  in  the 
response  of  faith  and  loyalty,  but  Jesus  seems  to 
have  found  satisfaction  In  the  steadily  developing 
power  of  their  faith  as  they  received  his  message. 
The  joy  of  reproducing  himself  in  them,  colors 
the  thought  of  his  last  great  prayer  as  he  entrusts 
them  and  their  future  to  the  Father's  care:  "As 
Thou  hast  sent  me  Into  the  world,  even  so  have 
I  also  sent  them  Into  the  world." — "Holy  Father, 
keep  them  In  Thy  name." 

The  minister  has  another  source  of  satisfaction, 
— and  It  Is  no  mean  indemnity  for  his  heartaches 
and  self-denials,  in  the  realization  that  he  is 
devoting  himself  to  the  greatest  and  best  things 
of  human  life;  that  he  is  spending  himself  in 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       87 

building  the  noblest  of  humanity's  hopes  and 
dreams. 

Sometimes  the  world  does  not  appreciate  what 
the  minister  is  contributing  to  its  welfare;  some- 
times it  stones  its  prophets,  and  its  benefactors  go 
down  to  the  grave  covered  with  neglect.  The 
approbation  of  our  fellowmen  is  precious  and 
cheering  to  the  soul,  but  it  is  not  a  necessity.  If 
need  be,  the  servant  of  Jesus  can  ^'endure  as  see- 
ing him  who  is  invisible,"  and  can  rejoice  that 
even  though  "despised  and  rejected  of  men,"  his 
work  is  hastening  the  advent  of  the  King. 

But  valuable  as  is  the  reward  that  comes  from 
the  consciousness  of  reproducing  himself  in  other 
lives,  and  contributing  to  the  highest  good  of  his 
fellowmen,  it  is  probable  that  the  average  min- 
ister finds  his  keenest  joys  in  the  approval  of  his 
own  conscience,  and  his  confidence  in  the  Master's 
final  benediction  "Well  done." 

Ministers  are  supposedly  of  tender  conscience, 
and  their  spirits  are  susceptible  to  subtle  influ- 
ences. For  many  of  them  there  is  sweet  and 
blessed  reward  in  the  consciousness  that  they  fol- 
low the  path  of  duty;  that  they  tread  in  the  foot- 


88       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

steps  of  their  Lord;  that  they  are  obeying  the 
great,  inherent  purposes  for  which  God  created 
them,  called  them,  into  His  kingdom,  and  then 
inducted  them  into  leadership  in  His  church. 

It  is  true,  a  man's  mental  state  is  influenced  by 
physical  conditions,  and  many  a  noble  soul  has 
tortured  itself  with  doubts  when  all  that  was 
needed  to  give  poise  and  joy  was  a  period  of  rest. 
Nearly  every  worker  has  his  seasons  when  the 
fires  of  hope  and  faith  burn  low.  But  somehow 
God  renews  his  faithful  from  day  to  day,  and 
courage  takes  fresh  hold  of  its  tasks  as  it  listens 
to  the  voice  of  the  Lord.  When  Jesus  said  to 
his  worn  and  weary  disciples,  "Come  ye  apart 
and  rest  awhile,"  he  simply  acted  in  harmony  with 
that  divine  providence  whereby  the  Father  pro- 
vides for  the  toilers  of  His  kingdom. 

God  would  have  His  servants  rest  in  the  blessed 
consciousness  of  His  approval.  Perhaps,  to  the 
pious  imaginations  of  many,  the  richest  reward  is 
reserved  to  the  last,  to  be  awarded  in  the  king- 
dom of  the  future. 

The  knight  of  the  olden  time  esteemed  himself 
richly  repaid  for  his  arduous  labors  or  endurance 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       89 

of  dangers  if,  on  bended  knee,  he  could  enter  the 
presence  of  his  king  or  press  his  lips  to  the  finger 
tips  of  his  queen. 

But  the  minister  has  something  as  much  deeper 
and  richer  than  that  experience  of  those  ancient 
knights,  as  his  King  Is  greater  and  more  glorious 
than  the  monarchs  they  served.  The  minister's 
Lord  Is  the  King  of  Glory,  the  Mighty  One  who 
walks  In  the  "midst  of  the  golden  candlestick." 

Even  while  in  the  flesh,  the  minister,  through 
the  eyes  of  faith,  may  have  a  choice  and  blessed 
perception  of  his  Lord.  It  Is  true  that  we  see 
him  only  as  in  a  "mirror  darkly."  We  could  not 
stand  the  full  effulgence  of  Llis  glory,  but  in  rap- 
turous moments  that  he  vouchsafes  to  his  faith- 
ful they  catch  heavenly  visions  of  his  supernal 
excellence.  And  these  glimpses  of  his  bliss  and 
beauty  are  simply  promises  of  the  felicity  that 
shall  be  granted  to  them  when,  having  completed 
the  work  assigned  to  them,  they  "see  him  as  he 
is  face  to  face"  and  hear  him  saying  "ye  have 
been  faithful  over  few  things,  I  will  make  thee 
ruler  over  many.  Enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy 
Lord." 


And  he  gave  some  to  be  apostles;  and  some, 
prophets;  and  some,  evangelists;  and  some,  pastors, 
and  teachers;  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  unto 
the  work  of  ministering,  unto  the  building  of  the 
body  of  Christ;  till  we  all  attain  unto  the  unity 
of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of 
God,  unto  a  full  grown  man,  unto  the  measure  of 
the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ. — Ephesi«ns 
4:11-13. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  PERMANENCY  OF  THE  MINISTRY 

As  we  consider  the  present  status  of  the  min- 
istry, and  seek  the  prophet's  vision  for  the  future, 
several  convictions  force  themselves  upon  us. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  persuasion  that  the  min- 
istry is  not  a  passing  office  of  the  times,  but  a 
permanent  institution  of  the  church. 

Mankind  owes  a  mighty  debt  to  the  Christian 
ministry.  Ministers  have  been  benefactors  of  the 
race  through  all  the  years  since  the  establishment 
of  the  office  by  the  apostolic  church.  They  have 
been  discoverers  of  continents,  pioneers  of  civil- 
ization, inspirers  of  learning,  founders  of  univer- 
sities, reformers  of  government,  proclaimers  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  defenders  of  the  op- 

90 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       91 

pressed,  and  leaders  of  leagues  of  pity  and  peace 
for  the  world.  They  have  filled  the  pages  of 
history  with  the  records  of  great  deeds  for  the 
human  brotherhood.  The  glowing  deeds  of  such 
men  as  William  Brewster,  the  leader  of  the  Pil- 
grim Exodus  to  America;  Roger  Williams,  the 
pioneer  of  Religious  Liberty  in  America ;  David 
Livingston,  the  explorer  of  Darkest  Africa; 
Marcus  Whitman,  the  savior  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  for  the  United  States;  and  hundreds  of 
men  of  like  spirit  and  noble  deed,  give  glory  to 
the  profession,  and  places  men  and  nations  and 
civilizations  under  everlasting  debts  of  gratitude. 

Notwithstanding  these  things,  we  hear  the 
opinion  expressed  occasionally  that  the  pulpit  has 
become  a  superfluity,  that  the  preacher's  mission 
has  been  fulfilled,  and  that  the  world  no  longer 
needs  him  or  esteems  his  profession  as  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  social  body.  The  growth  of  ritual- 
ism, the  development  of  the  printing  press,  and 
popularization  of  the  newspaper,  and  the  increas- 
ing number  of  publicity  agents,  are  supposed  to 
have  superceded  the  voice  of  the  minister. 

But   the   written   word   can   never   make    the 


92       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

spoken  word  obsolete,  nor  a  business  manager 
fulfill  the  functions  of  the  God-called  pastor. 

Our  social  and  political  organizations  are  all 
witnessing  for  the  power  of  the  human  voice  and 
personality  in  matters  of  propaganda.  Political 
campaign  managers  and  directors  of  reform 
movements  use  the  printed  page  generously;  but 
they  depend  most  on  the  men  with  the  silver 
tongues. 

The  minister's  calling,  consisting  so  largely  of 
the  proclamation  of  the  truth  by  the  spoken  word, 
is  "rooted  in  the  moral  order  of  human  history." 
You  cannot  eliminate  it  or  supplant  it  with  some- 
thing else  without  impoverishing  the  church  and 
bringing  the  world  to  moral  and  spiritual  bank- 
ruptcy. The  voice  of  the  minister,  the  work  of 
the  clergyman,  is  needed  today  just  as  keenly  as 
when  Luther  thundered  his  defiance  of  Rome ;  or 
Edwards  set  in  motion  the  moral  forces  of  the 
Great  Awakening;  and  Whitefield  convicted  by 
his  eloquence  the  multitudes  of  the  careless  and 
godless. 

The  servant  of  Christ  does  not  need  to  offer 
apology  for  his  being  or  for  his  work.     He  can 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       93 

face  men  with  dignity  and  assurance  under  the 
"profound  conviction  that  what  he  has  to  say, 
the  whole  world,  from  prince  to  beggar,  needs  to 
hear  and  heed." 

A  second  observation  Is  that  the  ministry  of 
today  should  seek  the  production  of  an  adequate 
and  nobler  ministry  for  the  church  of  tomorrow. 
If  the  church  is  a  permanent  institution  and  its 
ministry  a  confirmed  and  constant  factor  of  Its 
life,  It  is  obviously  a  vital  matter  to  conserve  and 
develop  the  ministerial  profession  and  to  per- 
suade choice  souls  to  consecrate  themselves  to  this 
form  of  service. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  ministers  have  not 
always  been  acutely  conscious  of  this  duty.  Some- 
times they  have  not  appraised  their  profession  at 
Its  true  worth.  To  this  extent  they  are  responsi- 
ble for  the  suspicion  that  the  ministry  is  of  no 
value  to  modern  society,  and  the  consequent  fail- 
ure of  some  young  men  to  adopt  the  profession. 
Timidity  and  self-consciousness  ofttimes  prevent 
a  proper  self-assertion,  and  the  assumption  of  the 
honorable  place  that  belongs  to  the  preacher  of 
righteousness.    The  prophet  of  God  has  no  occa- 


94       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

slon  to  fear  the  face  of  man.  Of  course  conceit 
and  vanity  and  bluster  have  no  place  in  the 
preacher's  life,  but  there  is  a  certain  self-appre- 
ciation that  is  simply  manliness. 

This  false  modesty,  the  apologetic  attitude 
adopted  by  some  clergymen  in  the  presence  of 
political  or  social  leaders  or  men  of  other  profes- 
sions or  business,  has  had  harmful  reactions  upon 
some  of  the  young  men.  Moreover,  this  self- 
deceiving  humility,  coupled  with  the  economic 
handicaps,  have  made  ministers  chary  of  persuad- 
ing their  own  sons  or  other  choice  young  men  to 
enter  the  profession.  The  minister  must  be  con- 
vinced, and  act  as  though  he  were  convinced,  that 
his  vocation  is  manly  and  his  work  essential  to 
society. 

In  the  measure  that  he  adopts  this  attitude,  the 
minister  will  find  himself  begetting  spiritual  sons 
who  gladly  follow  in  his  footsteps  and  rejoice  that 
his  mantle  has  fallen  upon  them. 

Another  Judgment,  and  a  judgment  that  is  im- 
pressing itself  upon  the  hearts  of  many  leaders  in 
the  church,  is,  that  the  church  of  Christ  must  seek 
both  to  make  attractive  the  conditions  that  sur- 


THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK       95 

round  the  minister,  and  to  obey  the  Master's 
injunction:  "Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the 
harvest  that  he  send  forth  laborers  into  his 
harvest." 

The  amelioration  of  conditions  is  a  difficult  and 
complex  affair,  and  is  in  some  measure  controlled 
by  worldly  forces ;  but  the  Christian  consecration 
and  wisdom  of  the  laity  can  accomplish  much,  if 
the  task  is  undertaken  with  any  degree  of  enthu- 
siasm and  unity.  It  will  take  time  to  change  the 
atmosphere,  to  transfer  economic  burdens,  and  to 
breed  large  conceptions  of  liberal  treatment;  but 
the  clergy  will  not  be  impatient  if  it  can  feel  that 
the  church  is  treating  the  problem  seriously,  and 
is  really  determined  that  its  spiritual  leaders  shall 
have  their  modicum  of  respect,  honor,  and  finan- 
cial emoluments. 

Tennyson  tells  us  that  "more  things  are 
wrought  by  prayer  than  this  world  dreams  of," 
and  certainly  this  is  true  in  regard  to  the  possi- 
bilities of  prayer  in  influencing  young  men  to  enter 
the  ministry.  President  Horr,  of  Newton  Theo- 
logical Institution,  commenting  on  the  Master's 
injunction  to  pray  that  laborers  might  be  sent  into 


96       THE  MINISTRY  AS  A  LIFE  WORK 

the  harvest  fields,  tells  us  "There  is  a  divine  urg- 
ency, which  in  answer  to  prayer,  compels  men  to 
enter  the  work  of  the  ministry.  There  is  a  call, 
and  the  church  may  expect  that  call  to  be  heard 
when  she  prays  as  God  has  directed." 

The  church  is  approaching  the  climax  of  its 
long  and  marvellous  history  of  benefits  conferred 
upon  the  race.  The  ministry  is  facing  its  supreme 
hour  of  sacrificial  service.  No  man  can  predict 
what  issues  the  crisis  will  present,  nor  assuredly 
envision  the  ensuing  results.  But  this  is  certain 
that  clergy  and  laity  alike  need  to  pray,  and  to 
pray  the  achieving  prayer,  that  God  would  so 
add  to  the  forces  of  the  workers  that  when  the 
divine  hour  of  opportunity  for  mankind  shall 
strike,  it  may  not  strike  in  vain. 

"Watchman,  what  of  the  night?"  "The 
morning  cometh."  Yes,  the  morning  of  God's 
great  day  is  coming,  for  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  church  shall  shortly  hear  the  voice  of  the 
Master,  and  thrilling  to  his  command,  will  lay 
hold  of  those  powers  and  forces  that  are  able  to 
subjugate  the  hearts  of  men  and  enthrone  the 
Christ  in  every  realm  of  human  society. 


Date  Due 

f 

UL  1  '^' 

"^    "NiLg;!!^^ 

gmmmtm. 

pf 

f 

\  ^   ,-  ^;    CK^  ,v   ,>  < 


V 


-\\^ 


\\ 


^ 


V-        %l^ 


